>>Okay, okay, we're back, you're watching the cubes, continuous coverage of HBs Green Lake announcement. One of the things that we said on the Cuban. We first saw Green Lake was let's watch the pace at which H P E delivers new servants is what's that cadence like? Because that's a real signal as to the extent that the company's leading into the cloud and today we're covering that continued expansion. We're here with Tom Black, who was the general manager of HPC storage and Omar assad, who's the storage platform lead for cloud data services at Hewlett Packard Enterprise gentlemen welcome. It's good to see you. >>Thanks Dave. Thanks for having us today. Good to see you. >>Happy to be here. Dave. >>So obviously a lot has changed globally, but when you think of things like cyber threats, ransomware, uh, the acceleration of business transformation, uh, these are new things, a lot of it is unknown a lot of it was forced upon us tom what are you guys doing to address these trends? How are you helping customers? >>Sure, thanks for the question. So if you think back to what we launched in early May, kind of the initial cloud transformation of what was our traditional storage business. Um, we really focused on one key theme. Very customer and customer driven theme that the cloud operational model has one and that customers want that operational model, whether they're operating their workload in the cloud or whether they're operating that workload in their own facility or Nicolo kind of the same thing. So that was kind of our true north and that's what we launched out of the gate in May. But we did allude in May to the fact that we would have an ongoing series of new services coming out on the uh H B Green Lake edge to cloud platform. And just really excited today to be talking about somewhat that expansion looks like um we will continue uh through this month and through the quarters ahead to really add more and more services in that vein of focusing on bringing that true cloud services model to our customer. So we're really excited today to unveil kind of, we've entered the data protection as a service market with HP Green Lake. So this is really our expansion into a very top of mind topic and set of problems and solutions or headaches and aspirins, to quote an old friend um that Ceos faces, they think about how to manage data through its life cycle in their organization. >>When I talked to see IOS during the pandemic. Not that we're out yet, but really in the throes of it and asked them about things like business resilience that they said, you know, we really had to rethink our disaster recovery strategy. It was it was sort of geared toward a fire or a hurricane and we we just didn't even imagine this type of disaster if you will. So we really needed to rethink it. So when I, I see your disaster recovery as a service and capabilities like that. Is that the Xarelto acquisition? >>Yes. Dave thanks you. So we're super happy to have the Xarelto team now as part of our family. Um, just a brilliant team, a well respected technology, uh, kind of a blue chips at our customers and partners that really appreciate what zero has to offer. Um, as we looked at the data protection as a service market, one of the hardest problems is really in that disaster recovery space, I think Omar's gonna talk a little bit more about today. Um, but sort of really does bring the leading industry, what's called continuous data protection um, capability into our green lake platform. Um, we've just recently closed the acquisition and we're working on kind of integration plan as we speak now that we can actually talk to each other post close. Um, but you'll uh, you'll continue to see, you know, some really exciting milestones each and every quarter as we march forward with certain now as part of the family. >>So we all talk about how data is, is so important. We certainly learned during the pandemic that that if you weren't a digital business, you were out of business and a digital business is a data business. So things like backup data protection as a service become increasingly critical. I know you have some capabilities there maybe you could share with us. >>Absolutely. So you know, one of the things that we noticed was as we took the storage business through its transformation and we started can work you know, with the launch of the electron 90 and the six K platform. We really really brought the cloud operational model to our customers. So one of the things that you know, feedback that was coming loud and clear to us is that as we look at the storage portfolio where we look at file block and object, which are now being transformed into a cloud operational experience, data protection, disaster recovery coming back into business after a disaster snapshot management. All of those capabilities, we still have to rely on our partner technologies in order to do that now. It's not bad that we have great partners in the data protection world, but what we're really focused on is that cloud operational model and cloud operational experience and to and as tom mentioned through the data management life cycle. So as a result of that, we talked to a lot of our customers, we talked to a bunch of partners and one of the things that was coming back was that yes, there are many data protection backup offerings on the market. But that true as a service experience that is completely integrated to the services experience of the storage that the customers is experiencing that is not there. So what we looked at was especially to the largest ecosystem, which is the VM ware ecosystems. So we're launching data protection as a service or backup as a service for our VM ware customers offered from data services, cloud console as a SAAS portal. 100% SAs service, nothing to install. No media servers, no application servers, no catalog servers, no backup targets, no patching, no expansion, no capacity planning. None of that is needed. All that's needed is sign on click. Give your V center credentials and off you go, that's it. That is it three clicks and you're in business. So currently, you know, in our, in our analysis we offer five x faster recovery from any of the competitive offerings that there there there are 3.5 better de doop ratios. But for our customers is as simple as this. VM is protected as this many dollars per gig per month. That's it. No backup target, no media server, no catalogs are nothing nothing to manage total Turkey off of the portal. So that's the cadence of services that if you promise and this is one of the first ones when it comes to data management that is coming out into the open. >>So you may have just answered this question, but I want to pose it and get you maybe just summarize it because tom was talking earlier about the customer mandate for cloud in a cloud operational model. So I want you to explain to the audience how you're making that real >>actually can I start that one should be the test was monday morning. Getting ready for this chat with you Dave they got me on console and I'm not kidding three clicks, I got back up and running off the lab VM ware instance so I'll pass it off to you the real answer. But if I could do it three clicks >>as well as a convenience of this service, even tom can be your back, you might be able to do with this. Uh again, you know, a very important question the when you, when you look at the cloud operational model as you abstracts the hardware and and take the management model up into a SAS service, it gives our customers that access to that continuous delivery access that we have. We're going to continue to make the service medal better in the cloud model and automatically customers get the value of it without even reinstalling or going through a patch cycle or an upgrade cycle. But as we get into this cloud operational model, one of the things that was missing was uh if you if you if you if you start to talk about applications, how our application workloads going to be deployed, how are they going to be protected and how are they going to be expanded? So what we did was we, we expanded our info site offerings by merging them into the data services, cloud console and we're releasing a new service called app insects. It is going to be available to our customers at the end of the month. Uh It is, nothing has to change. They don't have to install any sort of agents or or host modifications, nothing like that. If their customers of electra nimble primary boxes and they're using info site and data services, cloud console, they will automatically get app insights. What Athens sites does is it really teases apart all that data that we have been collecting within foresight and now with the acquisition of HPV cloud physics, we're merging them together and relating the operational stacked top to bottom. So discovering all the way from your application usage, network usage, storage, use it. IOP usage VM values cross, collaborating them and presenting that to a customer from an app or an outcome perspective all in the data services, cloud console. So what this does for our customers is it really really transforms not only their operational experience but also buying experience. Because if you remember in one of the earlier releases of data services cloud console we released this application called, you know, intelligent intent based provisioning in which you just describe your workload and we go ahead and we provision that app insights and info site, feed that information directly into that and cloud physics generates and results and displays those analytics back to us to your partner of record and to the H. B. So we can all come together on a common data driven discussion point with our customers to continue to make their journey better >>tom where's all the boxes, traditional storage is changing. I've actually been waiting for this day for a long, long time. We've certainly seen glimpses of it from the cloud players, but they don't have, you know, super rich portfolio storage portfolio. They're growing now, but this is a really good strong example of a company with a large storage portfolio. That's, I mean I haven't heard the word three power once today. Right. And so what that says to me, that's an indication that you're thinking like a cloud player, can you maybe talk >>to that? Sure. Yeah, we're just tremendously excited about this transformation and really the reception we've got in the market from analysts, from partners, from customers because you're right, you haven't heard us talk about a box at all today. It's really about a block service, a file on the object service, a backup and recovery service, disaster recovery service. That that's that is the the language, if you will of the business problems of our customers not, do they need to pick this widget or that widget. And how many apps can I get here and there? And which did the h a cage protection scheme be that, is that, is our job to manage underneath are true North, which is the cloud operational model. And so that's going to be really how we we've set our course and how we will uh kind of deliver products solutions offers into the market underneath that umbrella, Ultimately, um getting our customers wherever their data is Dave to be able to interact at that service level instead of at that infrastructure box >>level, you've got my attention wherever the data. So that's the north star here is this is, you know, you're not done today obviously, but you've got a vision to bring that to the cloud across clouds on prem out to the edge. That's the abstraction layer that you're gonna build, your hiding all that complexity. That's correct. And that's cloud. The definition of cloud is changing. >>Yeah, >>it's no longer started, it's no longer a remote set of services. Somewhere up in the cloud. It's expanding on prem hybrid across clouds edge >>everywhere. You're exactly right. Dave it is, cloud is more about the experience and the outcome. It gives a customer than actually where the compute or storage is. We've chosen to take a very customer an agnostic position of whether it's, you know, data in your premise, data in your cloud. We're going to help you manage that data and deliver, you know, that data to workloads and analytics, uh, wherever the, wherever the compute needs to be, where the data needs to be. Again, technologies like Xarelto giving instability and move data across clouds from facilities and clouds back and forth. So it's a really exciting new day for HP. Green Lake were just so super happy to bring these technologies out and really continue to follow on the course of doing what we said, we would do >>the new mindset starts there, I guess it's obviously knew certainly new technologies, uh, you're talking about machine intelligence is a metadata challenge. Absolutely. Big time, you know, long term that North Star that we talked about and applying that machine intelligence, all the experience that you gather data that you're gathering is, I think ultimately how customers want you to solve this problem >>in the middle of info site data services, cloud console and the instrumentation that is already shipping on our appliances, both in edge appliances and the data center appliances were collecting more than a trillion data points over the period of a quarter. Right at the end of the day. So it's harnessing that at the back end to cross relate and then using the cloud physics accusation. What we're doing is we can now simulate these things on behalf of our customers into the future timeline. So at the end of the day, it's really about listening to the customer and what outcomes that they want to achieve with their data storage is there we provide excellent persistence layers where customers can store their data safely. But at the end of the day it's customers choice, They can store their data out of the edge in compute servers, commodity servers, X 86 servers, they can have their data in the data center which they are privately owned or their data can be in a service provider or it can be in a hyper secular. The infrastructure of the persistence layer is independent from the data services. Cloud console data services. Cloud console provides our customers with a SAS based industry leading metadata rich management experience, which then allows you to draw conclusions. So services like cloud physics services like uh enforce it, provide the analytics and richness of the metadata, backup and recovery service allows us to index our customers data and add a rich metadata to that and then combine that with xylitol, which is our disaster recovery as a service offering. Going to start over here. That gives the customer a very simple slider as to where they want their protection levels to be, they want their protection to be instant or they want their protection to be lazy eight hours window. But the thing is at the end of the day, it's about choice without managing the complexities of the hardware >>underneath because programmable completely right I come in, what I'm hearing is file object blocks of your multi protocol. I got a full stack so data data reduction, my snaps might replicate whatever whatever I need it in there as a service. I can I can access latency sensitive storage if I need to or I can push it out to cheaper stores. I could push it out to the cloud, presumably I could someday I air gap it uh and it's all done as infrastructure as code and then different protection levels where I see this going. It really gets exciting is you're now a data company and you're bringing ai machine intelligence and driving data products, data services for your customers who are going to monetize that at their end of the value >>chain. That's right. That's right. And safely insecurity. Keeping in mind that was their toes technology. We can give you, you know, small second recovery points to protect against ransomware. So all of that operational elegance, all those insights and intelligence to help you build a more agile, um you know, workloads centric organization, but then to do it safely and securely against ransomware, that's kind of the storm, if you will. That's brewing. And we're just really excited to be at the eye of it. >>I'm excited to. This is uh I've been waiting for this day for a long time and we're not talking about envy, Emmy and Atomic Rights and I love that stuff by the way and I'm sure it's all under the covers, but that's not what drives business value guys. Thanks so much for coming on the Cuban. David. >>Thanks for having us. It's been great. Thank you. >>All right. We're seeing a transformation all through the stack and keep it right there. This is Dave Volonte for the Cuban. Our coverage of HBs Green Lake announcements right back mm mhm

>> live from Las Vegas. It's the Cube covering magenta. Imagine twenty nineteen. Brought to You by Adobe. >> Hi, Welcome back to the Cube. Lisa Martin with Jeff Rick at Imagine twenty nineteen at the Wind, Los Vegas Talking all about e commerce, innovation and technology. Consumer changes. All that good stuff. Joining us next is Adam Justice, the director of product marketing for the Adobe Experience about Adam. Welcome to the Cube. >> Thank you for having me. Thank you. >> This is a really high energy event. >> It is >> all days palpable, but I think it might be partly because there's a lot of orange here. It's a pretty energizing color. People have had very interesting entrances and exits on stage, coming from above and below. We've heard a lot of great testimonials from partners, customers, Dobie, folks, the gentle folks. Customer experience is critical to any product. Any service retailer, big or small. So true. Talk to us about you've been with Adobe for a long time. Talk to us about were perspective. The essentials Really good customer experience. Management? >> Absolutely. Thank you. Thanks for the question. It's great to be here, so and don't >> be. We've really >> evolved. I think as sort of the needs and rolls of our customers have. And I think the primary motivator for their evolution has been the customer customer itself. And whereas it used to be enough for us to think about, we're going to provide winning product or a service. All of us can agree, and it's easy for us to, and it's easy for us to agree now because we're all a focus group of one. >> We know what >> we like. We like an experience that actually feels like it's worth having. It's not enough to just put a product or a service out there. It needs to feel like something that actually not only feels natural, but it feels additive to our lives in some way. And so what was once sort of ah, relatively sir straight forward product development process or promotional process now is very much about how we addressing the needs of the consumer in a way that it is holistic, that respects the channels, that they want to interact with our brand on that respects the devices through which they want to either consumer product or research. Our product so it will be, is really trying to sort >> of >> understand the dynamics of the market today and bring solutions to the customers who now have this broader sort of stewardship. And I would say the things that we're seeing that our core to that our first, you're not going to deliver a meaningful experience to a customer unless you understand that customer and understanding that customer largely now comes down to data and a lot of fix will feel like, Well, that certainly seems logical that were awash in data. How do we actually get to the point where the data is telling us the story so we can leverage that information than tell a brand story till some kind of present a compelling experience? And then you add to that the dynamics, obviously right now about and entirely justifiable concerns about my privacy and the regulations there. Adobes going directly at that. With it, it'LL be experienced platform in order to effectively coalesce a meaningful point of view or sort of representation of off the customer in a way that respects their privacy. That un experienced steward can then look at that and say, Not only do I understand who this person is, but I have context and an understanding of what it is they're looking for. What is their intent? What is the context of this interaction now? So I can present a meaningful experience that obviously gets you part of the way. And but then knowing is only half the battle, right? Maybe not even half. Then you actually have to kind of rally around. Well, what, uh, what tools and content do we have at our disposal to ultimately present a compelling experience? You know what it will be? We like to say that emotion is the currency of experience. And if you're not actually leveraging meaningful content and presenting it in context and you're not going to evoke an emotion that is worth evoking, so definitely have the data piece than the content piece. But I would also add, and you've probably had other people sitting in this seat talking about how the complexity of all that has certainly exceeded now the capacity of at least my brain to manage in a singular sort of engagement with a customer, let alone at scale millions of times a day. So the role of artificial intelligence and machine learning now is so corps I would think that it's absolutely kind of. It's sort of the gearbox that's that's turning at the center of the data on one hand, the content and elements, the assets, the offer's on the other that allows for ultimately the coalescing of those things and then the delivery of an experience worth having. So that may have been like a two dollar answer Teo Two Cent question. But really, I feel like that's sort of the component pieces that we're seeing at play and sort of adobes motivation. And going into that space that came out where we're >> to Dhobi sounded a couple weeks ago. I can't keep track of things. Couple weeks go on Guy found it really interesting, especially with adobes roots really in the content generation side, right, all the way back to the creatives and the creators of that great content. And now to be a Liza sophistication of the tools to a B tests. I think best buy was on stage and they did four million or forty million customized email. So now you know, take this great creative A be tested to the degree again using the data and the contacts and the in the knowledge of what those customers are all about. And now it seems like the magenta piece is kind of the icing on the cake. Teo actually have the ability to get the transaction. Associate it with all this other process. Teo, bring the cash register, if you will. >> You're absolutely right. You're absolutely right. Adobe. When we when we executed sort of what we announced our intent to to acquire, we were talking about How does it'LL be? Facilitator? Help every experience become shop a ble and every moment personal And really that was That was a claim we couldn't make without without the magenta piece. So it is absolutely, um it's a hand in glove relationship. And now, especially as we've all evolved as consumers, I mean to imagine that we would be subscribing to socks or that we could one click purchase just about anything >> you need, the >> technology that can kind of keep pace with the expectations. And that's what it's all about because so many of those experiences that Adobe is intent on enabling our customers to present s >> so many of them culminate in a transaction >> of some sort. So the magenta is absolutely not only the icing on the cake, which I think is that it's a great metaphor, but it's also so integral right now, it's becoming like a fundamental or elemental part of what >> we're trying to accomplish, right. >> So delivering this comprehensive customer experience, managing our analytics, advertising, marketing, commerce the one thing that when you were kind of describing the core components of customer experience management again thinking is time. Because as consumers, we have so much choice. And if we meet friction at any point along the way, we're gonna churn it. We're gonna find somebody else who's gonna be able to deliver this product or service right. And unless in a frictionless way. So when you were talking about a I, for example, I was thinking comment on how that Khun B. Leverage to be able to facilitate that Justin Time shop, a ble experience that converts to a sale that is able to do so in a way that's personable, personalized to the customer experience and taking that inside to go. Right now, there's an action that Lisa just took. We've gotta offer this right now, >> right? Well, you know, that's one of things that I absolutely love about customer experience management. Sieck Sam Neill here issues the acronym. In >> a way, I >> just I kind of loved the absurdity of it, right. I mean, when you think of the scale to say something like, we're going to make every experience, shop a bowl and every moment personal, it's just, uh it's scope of that. And to imagine that that's possible is almost absurd. But when you introduce the advancements that we're seeing in artificial intelligence and machine learning now, it's literally going from the absurd of from the realm of science fiction into very real. It's and that's where What what adobes looking at, like, How can we literally take some sort of statement like we're going to personalize experiences at every across the customer journey? We're going to do it at scale and in real time you think you brought up the component of of real time and really, unless you're considering how we're going to meet the needs of the customer in the moment that they're expressing that need, then it's really moved. So it and it is absolutely artificial intelligence and machine learning that we're seeing sort of expressed now across the Adobe Experience cloud that are making that happen in in multiple ways. One of the ways would be simply by shortening that span between sort of the late genius that marketers are walking around in their heads and actual execution. So how can we kind of take the work some of the friction out of the work flows that allow them to translate their ideas in tow offers? And another place would be, How do we shorten the space between a signal that we get saying behavioral data that we see show up either in a nap or on a on a website, and then turn through all of the possibilities of what we could present? Apply algorithms to kind of determine what is the next best offer next best experience, and then present that >> in a way that actually >> feels, if not really time pretty close to it? And that would not be possible without without artificial intelligence at Adobe, our product in that space that we references Adobe Sensei's So you'LL hear us talk about Adobe Sense, say, and that's it's kind of the the umbrella that stretches around the different elements that I was talking about so >> interesting how just have the expectation game has changed and actually now being enabled by the technology under the covers because they used to be right. We made decisions based on a sampling of the data after the fact. Right now, the expectation is, I want to make a decision based on all the data or is close to all those I can get in near real time, real time, defined as enough time to do something about it, which is a completely different way to attack that problem and really change the expectation Gay. But that is the expectation game now from customers who are hoping that thing shows up. That's supposed to show up because it's really what I'm interested in now. And can't you figure that out based on all my activity? That's right. >> In fact, I was I was just having conversations with my children, and it kind of blows my mind there. They literally wonder why, when we order something on Amazon, it's not there, like within an hour to didn't Didn't we just buy that? And interestingly, in some in some markets now you're almost in a point where that's actually reality and So the fact that we've witnessed in such a short time frame this this kind of realization in this new reality, it is absolutely It's absolutely fascinating to observe it. We can only kind of blame and congratulate ourselves. Right is consumers for pushing these expectations, But now brands are doing everything they can to come Teo to keep up with. But I think one of the magical things that we're >> still we're still surprised and delighted on a regular >> basis. And that's one of the things that I love about Adobe and our ability to sort of Teo. Activate the things that that marketers and people who are responsible for customer spirit experience know that they want to dio. We're giving them tools now where it's actually not only a reality to respond in these incredibly short time frames, >> but do it in a way that could be >> super creative and and breakthrough or differentiate, which is a It's a It's a meaningful requirement for brands today to be able to do all of that stuff, but do it in a way that >> is unlike their peers, exactly like we were talking about before, when you have so much choices a consumer, especially for certain types of products that are commodities. If it's not in a way that's differentiated and unique, I'm going to go somewhere else. Where I could find that experience really kind of connects with me on whatever level, whatever the product of services be able to create that creative, unique experience. And we were talking with Jason about what was announced this morning with Adobe Sales Channel on the Adobe branded storefront and being able to give merchants even within Sorry, not Adobe Alice on been talking for hours, giving them the ability, say, within an Amazon marketplace to be elevator brand a little bit, make it a little bit more unique. So they had a little bit of an edge and maybe expressed some brand creativity within that platform. >> Right? I really do appreciate that element of of of what we're doing, having come from kind of an advertising background myself, where you know that you're the mental band with you get with anyone is so limited, and the opportunity to differentiate is you have to grab it when it presents itself. And so, in order to weigh risk to becomes like overly scientific about this indefinitely. There's there's so much science involved with it now. But we can't forget the art. We can't forget the opportunity to literally tio take that those even those minor elements. And sometimes it's the signals that we get that say someone is prepared, are interested in this type of experience. But then how do we make that experience not feel surgical, but rather actually impressive and emotionally even on? So that's one of things that I love about Adobe. We really do try and embrace push forward on the science aspect. But respect the fact that a lot of brand building and a lot of meaningful experiences that we have are absolutely also rooted in the art. So >> that's a great point. It's really helping customers kind of fine tune and dialled the art with the science. Your park marketing guy. What may be a favorite customer example that shows a customer that's really been able to leverage the data, the creativity to deliver differentiated brand millionaire, their customers, anything come to mind in particular? >> Well, certainly there's, you know, there's there's so many I I feel like for me, the operative when I really feel impacted by a brand. Sometimes it's when I break out of sort of the mundane or I get to go, wanna get I get to go on vacation with my family and I feel like, interestingly just going to AA remote locale. Sometimes it can either be magical or can be like, Ah, horror show, right? But the way brands like Marriott Starwood married Bon voy. Now the way that they're there, they're embracing the opportunity to sort of bring technology in a way that that feels very additives but almost transparent to where now you're actually you, Khun, Ifyou're based on your loyalty program and you have the right app on your phone, you can walk straight to the door and unlock the room. I mean, that's that's huge. And it takes something that could've like that might have been one of the bigger friction points, like standing in a line to check in, >> and it just makes it fluid. It makes it feel >> like, you know, this is the type of experience that I want tohave, but I'm just getting things done and things feel good and the opportunity for a brand to go in and sort of think about Where are those points where I might be introducing friction rather than feel good and being able to remove those and have technology do it in a transparent way? I think is really it's really impressive. >> It could be absolutely transformational. Absolutely for sure. It's such a good >> example of just kind of twisting the lens, you know, the check in process. Who would ever think we're not going to change the check in process? It's a check in process, but for some would actually you'LL Wait a minute, That is, that is, that is of their whole experience of their time with us. You're family for a couple three, four days. You know, that is a major for friction point. You're tired. Just got in from the airport, you know, the kids were hungry. You just want to drop your bags and then the stand in line. So So they used technology to redefine that little piece of that whole week that you're spending that property is really creative. Before you even get to the technology enablement to make it so >> or or take, for example, one of the most painful things that can happen and travel when you're on a flight that's delayed or cancelled. And then not only are you dealing then with just kind of the emotional duress of of having to re calculate everything, but then >> you have to stand in line forever. But now you >> can pull out your app and at your fingertips you have potential. You have the opportunity to be recognized as I'm this passenger. I have this sort of status. Here are our alternatives and being able to sort of take control or engage in that way that that that that leverages technology to again sort of remove friction and add solution. I >> just think >> we're really at the tip of the iceberg in the way that we're going to see this type of technology infusing into things that we feel are more pure experience than just marketing in campaigns. >> Exciting, exciting times. Adam, thank you so much for joining me on the Cuban sound implosion. Look forward to hearing lots of great things to come and really helping to drive his experiences with the art and the science. Indeed. Thank you for your time. >> Thank you. Thanks >> for Jeff. Rick. I'm Lisa Martin. Coming to you live from Imagine twenty nineteen at the Wynn Las Vegas. Thanks for watching

>> Announcer: Live, from Las Vegas. It's theCUBE! Covering Oracle Modern Customer Experience 2017. Brought to you by Oracle. >> Okay, welcome back, everyone. We are here live, in Las Vegas, the Mandalay Bay Convention Center, this is SiliconANGLE Media's theCUBE, our flagship program where we go out to the events and extract the signal from the noise. I'm John Furrier with my co-host, Peter Burris, Head of Research at siliconANGLE and wikibon.com. Our next guest is Jennifer Renaud, who's the CMO/Global Marketing Lead for Oracle Marketing Cloud. She's the brains behind this show, underneath Laura Ipsen, who was on yesterday, General Manager, SVP. Great to see you, Jennifer. >> Thanks, it's great to see you. >> John: Thanks for coming on, I know you're super busy, thanks for spending the time to come on theCUBE. >> Thank you for having me, I'm really happy to be here. >> So we talked last year. You guys were new. Laura popped into the position, took over the helm at Oracle Marketing Cloud, you joined the team. It's been quite a transformation over the past year. A lot of great feedback on the show. I mean, the Markies was like the Golden Globes, was glammed up, and people screaming, you mentioned. And then now, the conversations in the hallways, certainly great feedback on the sessions, and people in there saying, "Hey, I'm getting great, qualified people walk through, having great conversations." What happened? Between last year and this year. Give us some insight into what was the big shift. >> The big shift? Well, we've had a big shift in our team. You know, during that time period. (both laughing) Which is really interesting. >> And as manifest by the show, a big shift in direction. >> Yeah, a big shift in direction. You know, two things I think, seriously, there was a big shift in the team, overall, you know, my marketing team, we've made a lot of changes, we're relooking at how we do the work that we do. Really looking at the stories that we tell. You know, there's been a lot of change in that, as well. And then, how we tell our stories together with the rest of our CX team. That's been really important. I spend a lot of time with the rest of my CX peers, you know, that are here also. >> It's interesting, we've been following Oracle, this is our eighth year covering Oracle as Oracle proper, and two years covering Marketing Cloud, with theCUBE, and it was interesting, we were observing that how you guys got here, or there, last year, a lot of great acquisitions and integrated pretty well. But the question was, man, if you can just put all this together. Which you guys were kind of smiling, smirking, but you were doing that, so you have now this cohesive story and platform. You still have pillars of solutions, but, yet integrated under one customer experience. Give us some insight into where that is, and what's next, and how that's going. >> So, the connection with the entire customer experience cloud? >> John: Yeah. >> You know, we've been sharing that message for a while. You know, across Oracle. And I think you probably heard it the first time at Open World, which is where I met you, this last year, and we made some announcements then, but we are continuing to drive that total experience, you know, for our customers to engage with their customers. And, you know, I think probably the best way to look at that, and we were just talking about this a few minutes ago, you know, when I was thinking back in marketing 25 years ago. I've been reminiscing a lot lately. And I was looking back at re-reading the one-to-one future. And at that time, they were really saying, you know, the great thing you can do is engage with a customer in a way where you're a learning organization. So every touchpoint has the right reaction. I might call it, maybe, the physics of marketing. You know, we're going to have the energy that goes with this, so, you know, if I talk to you, if my last engagement with you is a services conversation, then the next marketing message better be in reaction to the last services conversation. And I think now with the ability for us to connect everything that we do in customer experience, and be able to connect our data, and be able to connect our interactions, our transactions, we have the ability to have a really great experience for our customers as result of having this connection. >> And the Marketing Cloud has gotten some good props, too. But I want to ask you about the CMO summit that you guys had in parallel here at the Mandalay Bay, we didn't get a chance to cover it, we were busy doing interviews all day yesterday, but we heard some good feedback. Mark Hurd came in and laid down some, like, "We have all this technology, why are we getting a 1% conversion improvement?" Or, I mean, all that tech. So it makes you rethink about CMO roles. And I want to ask you specifically, what was the conversation like when marketers were trying to think of progressive ways to get modern? What were some of the conversations around where they turn things upside down, what are some of the conversations that the CMOs were having, and saying, look, we know the future's the certain direction, directionally correct data, what do I got to do? >> Yeah, well, it's interesting, we talked a lot about data. We talked a lot about hiring people who can govern data, integrate data, manage data. Several of the companies said, you know, we're in merger and acquisition all the time, and it's a huge issue for us, because a whole new data set comes in. And it may have the same customer touchpoints. You know, the same customers. And now we have to figure out how to match the IDs. And so they said it's a huge challenge for them, you know, to be able to merge all of that. >> It's a great marketing opportunity for you to go to startups saying, hey, if you want to get by the big company, and they're on Oracle, make sure you're on Oracle! >> Jennifer: Make sure to call us. >> But that's a good point. >> Peter: Extends the ecosystem. >> Jennifer: Yeah, exactly. >> But that, the whole system of record, this brings up the integration challenges of moving fast and integrating in data. >> Right, and one of the things that came out of that, which was fascinating, is, the question was asked, is IT doing that, or is business doing it? And, without fail, almost all the marketers said, we own this now. This is our thing. You know, it's the customer touchpoint, business has to own it. >> What percentage of that is ownership by the marketing folks? Because I would say that I see a similar pattern where the digital end-to-end life cycle, from beginning to moment of truth is owned by the marketer. >> Yeah, well, it's happening more and more all the time, of course. >> John: 50/50? 60/40? 70/30? >> I mean, in reality? >> Yeah, reality. Middle America, middle of the world, not Silicon Valley. >> Let's see, in reality, it's maybe 50/50, maybe. I mean, I think we have a long way to go. >> John: Well had the commerce folks on earlier, saying that, 'cause we interviewed her, two years ago at Open World, 50% now are on the cloud vs. on-prem. >> Jennifer: Right. >> On commerce cloud. That's pretty significant. >> Oh yeah, big move. But I think as far as, you know, going back to the question on managing the data, how many people, how this is happening, and who owns it yet? I think there's probably still tension across all the businesses on who owns it and how you do that. If you could drop that tension and say we really do want that customer experience, we are going to focus on the customer. >> But are seeing that, and it's an interesting point, are people battling for control of the process, or are people battling for the control of the data, or both? 'Cause there's a difference. >> I think they are controlling the data. I don't think they're controlling the process, and it would be really great if they got to just obsessing about the customer instead. 'Cause if you did that, then the question of process or owning the data would go away. 'Cause you would do what was right for your business. >> So how has that relationship been between, the crucial relationship between sales and marketing starting to evolve? 'Cause in many respects, marketing used to be in service to sales, especially in the B2B universe, and now what we've heard today, and what we agree with, is marketing needs to be put in service to the customer. You need to do valuable things for the customer, otherwise you're not going to get any business, and you're not going to get any data back. So how is the marketing/sales relationship evolving as both of you try to focus on the customer? >> Well, you know it's interesting. Of course I'm doing that in my own role. Not just watching what's happening with my customers, but in my own role, my relationship is evolving with our salespeople. And, you know, relooking at what happens with the lead? And when we get a lead, what kinds of customers are we doing this with, and how do we want to engage with our customers? And we're completely changing how we've been doing this. I think, in the past, and I think it's really easy for customers to follow the numbers. >> What changes are you guys making right now that you can talk about that would be notable business practice wise that has been based upon data? >> So right now, just reducing our numbers of leads. Making sure that they are the right ones, and match the sales models we have. >> You're still taking a lot of inquiries you're more than happy to have pour in. But you're doing a better job of qualifying. >> We have a lot of demand. Making sure the demand becomes the right lead and opportunity, I think is the most important piece of this. You know, it's interesting language. We call it MQL, a lead score lead that comes out of Eloqua. And, to me, that's not really a qualified lead. I feel like there needs to be human interaction for it to be qualified. So I think it's interesting that the industry, over time, has started calling it an MQL. To me, it's an ML. >> Is the funnel changing now? 'Cause now we also observed and had conversations here on theCUBE where, if there's now super omnichannels, not just omnichannel, but like, every channel's open. There's been a flattening of channels. So you can have anything could be a channel. The entry point to the cloud for you guys could be Marketing Cloud, it could be commerce, it could be something else. Either way, the market is involved. So there's so many channels out there, so what does that do for the funnel? Because, if you're using third party data, which you guys have announced here, with the first party data, that's a compelling, game-changing shift in thinking. So the vertical funnel to your point of, you know, what's at the top. >> There's no such thing as a vertical funnel anymore. I mean, it just doesn't exist that way. Really, if you think about how we are engaging with customers, or consumers, you know, all the time. We talk about the omnichannel world, just like you just said, you can't look at it and say, "I'm going to go out and target someone" and wait for that to come in. People are searching all the time. They're picking up their phone. We just released that CMO Club whitepaper today, you know, talking about mobility. I was laughing, because we said people look at their phones 150 times a day, and I thought, seriously, I do it 150 times an hour. I can't even imagine. >> You're the first CMO that I've ever met that has agreed with me on this one. You're awesome. All right, so the funnel is sideways, it's all over the place, it's everywhere. That brings up the data question. And I think I know where you're going with this, so I'm going to try to see if I can lead you on there. So if that premise is there, which I agree is true, 'cause we have a lot of data that we're putting out there. That's our engagement data with siliconANGLE and all of our assets. The question is, it's the data. So, if the funnel was built for a certain reason, to track things, but that's to get the data, now the data's everywhere, so this brings the question up: how do you find the right data? So is the data available? 'Cause you mentioned the customers are talking, they're doing things. >> Data's available. We have it all over, we just have to make sure we're aggregating it in the right way. So, you know, for us, we're using our DMP, we're connecting it to our third party data, which I think is a great way to do this. You can know more about your customers. In some cases, maybe more than they might know about themselves. We're learning a lot about them as a result. And I think, with that, as we talked about earlier, I want more data. I don't want less data. I want more data. I want to know more about-- >> That's counterintuitive to what most people think about it. >> Exactly, I think it's very counterintuitive. I'm really excited about IOT for that reason. I would love to be marketing to people in space and time. I want to know where you are and what you're doing so that the conversation and the dialogue I'm having with you is exactly relevant to what's happening at that moment. >> You might be an outlier, maybe, but because you work for Oracle, you got a big net. You walk on the tightrope, but you got a net called Oracle. A lot of marketers might not have that support. So you're data-driven, you want more data, bring on the data is what you're saying. >> Yeah. >> Which is good, 'cause you can make sense of it. How does a company get to that position where they would have the courage and confidence to say "bring it on, bring on the data"? What would they-- >> Find the right partnerships. I mean, you can get that data, you have your own first party data, you can get second party data with other groups. There's no reason why you can't go in and say, hey I want to partner with another business on this. Companies have loyalty programs. You can go and share, you know, anonymized data with another group like that and learn more about your potential customer base. There are ways to get at this. >> And you guys are opening up the data cloud to them. Is this a true statement? Oracle customers can get access to the data cloud? Which is all the data that you guys are providing, third party data? >> They can purchase the data. >> John: Well, they can subscribe to it. >> Yeah, they get it with purchasing DMP as well. Yeah, they can subscribe to the data. Yeah, any customer can get access to it. >> I have two questions about what you've said thus far. One was, I heard you say, I want to make sure I heard it, that it's an ML, it's not an MQL until it touches a person. Because that, at a conference where everybody's talking about AI and everyone's talking about automation, that is counterintuitive. Totally agree with you, but want to hear what you mean by that. >> Okay, so we'll distinguish what I think AI will do versus what happens when a lead comes out from Eloqua that's lead scored. So, when a lead is lead scored, you know, it's still human interaction right now that says how do I come up with a lead score? You know, so my team, we spend a lot of time, like, which metric should we be using to make sure we figure out, is truly a lead that should come out of Eloqua at this point. We spend a lot of time, and then we run the data, and we look at it and figure out what's going to be the right mix. >> So you're, in many respects, training Eloqua. Just in a very labor-intensive way. >> Jennifer: Yes, it is a labor-intensive way. >> John: That's a human-curated algorithm. >> It is a human-curated algorithm, yes, and we talk to all of our global teams, we look at absolutely every way we should do this, and then we start testing it and making sure that we get the right leads that are coming out of this. At the right rate. That matches the number of people that we have that can serve the leads, as well. Too many doesn't help us if I don't have enough salespeople. Too few doesn't help me if my salespeople are sitting there not doing anything. >> So the readiness is the knob you're turning. So that the flow of leads are popping out in capacity to fulfill them. >> Exactly, exactly. It's an interesting mix. You know, we've been doing the model that says more is better, more is better, more is better. And after while you say, you know, how are this many people going to service this x many times leads that come out of this? But lead scoring is still based on my less than perfect -- >> Peter: Discretionary observation on what this actually means. >> Jennifer: What this actually means, exactly. >> That's great, that's great-- >> So I still need a human to pick up the phone and call the person and say, you know, are you actually a perspective customer? Are you a student, or are you, you know. >> So you're using some of the inside to then validate and use your judgment, it can be very quick, and very simple, but it's a central feature of the whole process, and it's the ultimate data. It's the ultimate first person data. Did you talk to someone, are they there? That's great. Second question-- >> John: I'm not sure I agree-- >> Now we can go to the AI, I think, which is the other part of that question, which is the predictive analytics that's coming out of this now. So now we have predictive analytics are coming out of this, that are looking at this and saying, hey we can look at this a little differently and do a little more listening and see how people are really engaging. Do we have different search patterns? We're saying, do we see search patterns inside of a company that might say there really is a buying activity happening here? So, great way to look at it from a B2B perspective. Now that begins to change what's happening with the lead. >> So it sets priorities on who they should be calling. Do you still anticipate that that customer's going to get a phone call? >> Jennifer: Yes, yeah. >> Okay great, second question-- >> Hold on, I'm going to push back on that side. One little caveat I have. I agree with your statement, in the all-digital world, the users are self-serving, so you can imagine a scenario where there's no human involvement at all. I'm flying around the web, I'm surfing, I'm discovering, and I'm a person, and I'm into some marketplace, and I'm buying, I'm buying. No human touched me at all. I'm a qualified lead, but I get link-baited, or I get tracked into a discovery pattern that is completely digital. There's no human involvement in that. >> In a B2B sense, though, it's setting up the contract so someone can buy off a contract, for example. So the buying activity may be set up. >> John: Oh, you're talking about B2B? >> Yeah, B2B, always. >> Yeah, and B2C I think it's a totally different scenario. >> When was the last time you got a call from somebody at Amazon? >> John: Never. >> Yeah. So second question, and I think this a great point, it ties back to the conversation we had earlier about partners. The partner often is the weakest chain. Weakest link in the chain. In a world where digital is both informing the customer about what's good and what's bad, but also you're sharing data. You run the risk that that partner defines the quality of the entire chain. So you've got to start sharing more data, you got to start sharing. How is the role of data impacting and influencing the activity of bringing on, nurturing, measuring, ultimately managing, partnerships? >> I think you guys talked to Doug Kennedy yesterday. >> John: He's a pro. >> Yeah, he's fantastic. From a marketing standpoint, in the same way, we are going to continue to share with our partners. So if we're looking at the numbers of partners that we engage with. Could they be the weakest link? I would probably challenge you on that, I think our partners can be our strongest link in what we're doing, and are probably closer to our customers than we are, in marketing, by a long shot. So I count on my partners to bridge that gap that way, absolutely, but will we share data so we can absolutely have a better relationship, from a selling perspective? Yeah. >> First let me qualify, that when you have multiple partnerships involved, and typically a solution, a complex solution like the Marketing Cloud, what we're talking about, is going to have multiple partnerships involved. You may have three phenomenal partnerships, and one good partnership. But that one good partner could have an enormous influence over the three very good partners. That's what I mean. So the second thing is, what I'm talking about is, does Oracle compete, or does Oracle utilize its willingness to use data, especially through tooling like Marketing Cloud, and the customer experience cloud, as a way of making Oracle more attractive to partners? >> Yes, absolutely. We would absolutely want to do that. We haven't been doing a lot of it, but we are moving forward that way, absolutely. We want to have that engagement. Absolutely, we want to have that engagement with our partners. I think, especially in marketing, we don't want them to just buy technology. I mean, they need to buy the really great creativity that comes with our partners, as well. And so we have to share as much data as possible to create that great experience for our customers, through our partnerships. >> Jennifer, I want to thank you for coming on theCUBE. Appreciate you coming on, sharing the insight into your role as CMO from Oracle Marketing Cloud. Appreciate it. Just share what's up for next year. Will there be another, bigger Markies? What's on the agenda for in between this event and next year, what's the plans between event windows? What do you got going on, what's the plan? >> Okay, so, when the 12th annual Markies happens next year, roughly about this time. I think it's almost the same week. Which will be fantastic. In the meantime, we're going to do a lot of storytelling. You will hear a lot about the Markies nominees and Markies winners. We have some incredible stories to tell, it gives us a great opportunity, actually, to talk about the people. You know, for us, the heroes, that created all of these great stories for us. The technology. And how they were using the technology to really make all of this happen, and the partners that they were using. >> Yeah, Doug rolled out his new strategy to the partners, he's been seven weeks on the job, back to Oracle from Oracle in the old days. So he's a pro. >> Jennifer: Yeah, oh yeah, he's great. I worked with him at Microsoft. >> And integrating into the Oracle cloud, still part of the plan? >> Jennifer: Yes. >> Cool. >> Just staying connected with the rest of Oracle, absolutely, we are Oracle. >> We will keep track of the stories with you guys. So we'll be tracking them. >> We'll be telling them with you, all year. >> We'll be documenting them. Jennifer, thank you so much for coming on theCUBE. Congratulations on the very successful event. >> Thank you very much. >> We're looking forward to hearing the data stories that you're using, and expanding on that next time. It's theCUBE live here at Las Vegas, at Mandalay Bay, for Oracle Modern CX show, #modernCX, this is theCUBE, I'm John Furrier with Peter Burris, more after this short break.

(energetic upbeat music) >> Host: Live from Las Vegas, it's The CUBE. Covering Oracle Modern Customer Experience 2017. Brought to you by Oracle. >> Welcome back, everyone. We are here live in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay for Oracle's Modern CX show, Modern Customer Experience. The Modern Marketing Experience converted into the Modern CX Show. I'm John Furrier with The Cube. My co-host Peter Burris. Day two of coverage. Our next guest is Catherine Blackmore, Global Vice President, Customer Success, Global Customer Success at Oracle Marketing Cloud. Catherine, welcome back to The CUBE. Great to see you. >> Thank you so much for having me here. It's been an incredible week, just amazing. >> Last year we had a great conversation. Remember we had. >> Yes. >> It was one of those customer focused conversations. Because at the end of the day, the customers are the ones putting the products to use, solving their problems. You were on stage at the keynote. The theme here is journeys, and the heroes involved. What was the summary of the keynote? >> Sure. As you say, this theme has really been around heroic marketing moments. And in a way, I wanted to take our marketers and the audience to an experience and a time where I think a lot of folks can either remember or certainly relate where, what was the beginning of really one experience, which was Superman. If you think about heroism and a superhero, well, Superman will come to mind. But I think what was interesting about that is that it was created at a time where most folks were not doing well. It was actually during the Great Depression. And most folks wouldn't realize that Superman almost never came to be. It was an image, an icon, that was created by two teenage boys, Jerry Shuster and Joe Siegal. And what they did is they got audience. They understood, just as two teenage boys, my parents, my family, my community is just not doing well. And we see that folks are trying to escape reality. So we're going to come up with this hero of the people. And in doing so, what's interesting is, they really were bold, they were brave. They presented a new way to escape. And as a result, DC Comics took it up. And they launched, and they sold out every single copy. And I think it's just a really strong message about being able to think about creativity and being bold. Jerry and Joe were really the heroes of that story, which was around. My challenge to the audience is, who's your Superman? What is your creative idea that you need to get out there? Because in many ways, we need to keep moving forward. At the same time, though, balance running a business. >> It's interesting, you did mention Superman and they got passed over. And we do a lot of events in the industry, a lot of them are big data events. And it's one little insight could actually change a business, and most times, some people get passed over because they're not the decision maker or they may be lower in the organization or they may just be, not be knowing what to do. So the question on the Superman theme, I have to ask you, kind of put you on the spot here is, what is the kryptonite for the marketer, okay, because >> (laughing) Yes. >> there's a lot of obstacles in the way. >> Catherine: It is. >> And so people sometimes want to be Superman, but the kryptonite paralyzes them. >> Catherine: Yeah. >> Where's the paralysis? >> It's funny that you say that. I think I actually challenge folks to avoid the kryptonite. There was three things that we really talked about. Number one is, Modern Marketing Experience, it's just an incredible opportunity for folks to think ahead, dream big, be on the bleeding edge. But guess what, we're all going to go on flights, we're going to head home, and Monday morning's going to roll around and we're going to be stuck and running the business. And my inspiration and, really, challenge to the audience and to all of our marketers is how do we live Modern Marketing Experience everyday? How do we keep looking ahead and balance the business? And, really, those heroic marketers are able to do both. But it doesn't stop there. We talked a lot about this week, about talent. Do we have the right team? Kryptonite is not having the right people for today and tomorrow, and then in addition to that, you can't just have a team, you can't just have a vision, but what's your plan? Where actually having the right stakeholders engaged, the right sponsorship, that's certainly probably the ultimate kryptonite if you don't. >> The sponsorships are interesting because the people who actually will empower or have empathy for the users and empower their people and the team have to look for the yes's, not the no's. Right. And that's the theme that we see in the Cloud success stories is, they're looking for the yes. They're trying to get that yes. But they're challenging, but they're not saying no. That's going to shut it down. We've seen that in IT. IT's been a no-no, I was going to say no ops but in this digital transformation with the emphasis on speed, they have to get to the yes. So the question is, in your customer interactions, what are some of those use cases where getting to that yes, we could do this, What are some of the things, is it data availability? >> Catherine: Absolutely. >> Share some color on that. >> I think, So I actually had a wonderful time connecting with Marta Federici, she met with you earlier. And I love her story, because she really talks about the culture and placing the customer at the center of everything they're doing, to the extent that they're telling these stories about why are we doing this? We're trying to save lives, especially in healthcare. And just to have stories and images. And I know some companies do an amazing job of putting the customer up on the wall. When we talk to our customers about how do we actually advance a digital transformation plan? How do we actually align everyone towards this concept of a connected customer experience? It starts with thinking about everyone who touches the customer every day and inspiring them around how they can be part of being a customer centric organization. And that's really, that's really important. That's the formula, and that's what we see. Companies, that they can break through and have that customer conversation, it tends to align folks. >> Interesting. We were talking earlier, Mark Hurd's comment to both the CMO Summit that was happening in a separate part of the hotel here in the convention center, as well as his keynote. He was saying, look, we have all this technology. Why are we doing this one percent improvement? And he was basically saying, we have to get to a model where there's no data department anymore. There never was. >> That's right. >> And there shouldn't be. There shouldn't be, that department takes care of the data. That's kind of the old way of data warehousing. Everyone's a data department, and to your point, that's a liberating, and also enables opportunities. >> It does. We talked a lot. Actually, the CMO Summit that we had as well this week, a lot of our CMOs were talking about the democratization of data. And Elissa from Tableau, I think you also talked to. We talked about, how do you do that? And why, what are those use cases, where, Kristen O'Hara from Time Warner talked about it as well. And I think, that's where we have to go. And I think there's a lot of great examples on stage that I would like to think our marketers, and quite frankly, >> Which one's your favorite, favorite story? >> My favorite story. >> John: Your favorite story. >> Wow, that's really putting me on the spot. >> It's like picking your favorite child. I have four. I always say "well, they're good at this sport, or this kid's good in school." Is there? >> I guess one. >> John: Or ones that you want to highlight. >> Well one that I, because we talked about it today. And it was really a combination of team and plan. Just really highlighting on what Marta's driving. If you think about the challenges of a multinational >> Peter: Again, this is at Philips. >> John: Marta, yeah. >> Catherine: This is Philips, Royal Philips. So Marta, what she's really, her team has been trying to accomplish, both B to C and B to B, and it speaks to data, and it talks about obviously having CRM be kind of that central nervous system so that you can actually align your departments. But then, being able to think about team. They've done a lot of work, really making certain they have the team for today and the future. They're also leveraging partners, which is also key to success. And then, having a plan. We spent time with Royal Philips actually at headquarters a number of weeks ago and they are doing this transformation, this disruptive tour with all of their top folks across, around the world that running their different departments, to really have them up and them think differently which is aligning them around that culture of looking out to the future. >> Peter: Let's talk a bit about thinking differently. And I want to use you as an example. >> Catherine: Sure. >> So your title is Customer Success. Global Vice President, Global Customer Success. What does that mean? >> Sure. I know a lot of folks, I'd like to think that, that's just a household name right now in terms of Customer Success. But I realize it's still a little new and nascent. >> We've seen it elsewhere but it's still not crystal clear what it means. >> Sure, sure. So when I think of Customer Success, the shorter answer is, we help our customers be successful. But that, what does it really mean? And when I think about the evolution of what Customer Success, the department, the profession, the role, has really come to be, it's serving a very important piece of this Cloud story. Go back a decade when we were just getting started actually operationalizing SaaS and thinking about how to actually grow our businesses, we found that there just needed to be a different way of managing our customers and keeping customers, quite frankly. Cause as easy as it is to perhaps land a SaaS customer, and a Cloud customer, because it's easier to stand them up and it's easier for them to purchase, but then they can easily leave you too. And so what we found is, the sales organization, while, obviously understands the customer, they need to go after new customers. They need to grow share. And then in addition to that, in some organizations, there still are services to obviously help our customers be successful. And that's really important, but that is statement-of-work-based. There's a start and a stop and an end to that work. And then obviously there's support that is part of a services experience, but they tend to be queue-based, ticket-based, break-fix. And what we found in all of this is, who ultimately is going be the advocate of the customer? Who's going to help the customer achieve ROI business value and help them ensure that they are managing what they've purchased and getting value, but also looking out towards the future and helping them see what's around the corner. >> Catherine I want to ask the question. One of the themes in your keynote was live in the moment every day as a modern marketing executive, build your team for today and tomorrow, and plan for the future. You mentioned Marta, who was on yesterday, as well as Kristen O'Hara from Time Warner. But she made an interesting comment, because I was trying to dig into her a little bit, because Time Warner, everyone knows Time Warner. So, I was kind of curious. At the same time, it was a success story where there was no old way. It was only a new way, and she had a pilot. And she had enough rope to kind of get started, and do some pilots. So I was really curious in the journey that she had. And one thing she said was, it was a multi-year journey. >> Catherine: Yes. >> And some people just want it tomorrow. They want to go too fast. Talk through your experience with your customer success and this transformation for setting up the team, going on the transformational journey. Is there a clock? Is there a kind of order of magnitude time frame that you've seen, that works for most companies? >> Sure. And actually I want to bring in one more experience that I know folks had here at Modern Marketing, which was, also, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, he actually talked about this very thing. I think a lot of folks related to that because what he's been doing in terms of building out this community and creating crowd-sourced, or I should say, I think he would want to say community-sourced content and creativity. It was about, you can't really think about going big. Like I'm not thinking about feature film. I'm thinking about short video clips, and then you build. And I think everyone, the audience, like okay I get that. And Kristen's saying, it took many little moments to get to the big moment. I think folks want to do it all, right at the very beginning. >> John: The Big Bang Theory, just add, >> Absolutely. >> Just add water, and instant Modern Marketing. >> It is, it is. >> John: And it's hard. >> And what we have found, and this is why the planning part is so important, because what you have to do, and it might not be the marketer. The marketer, that VP of Marketing, even that CMO may know, it's going to be a three year journey. But sometimes it's that CEO, Board of Director alignment that's really required to mark, this is the journey. This is what year one's going to look like. This is what we're going to accomplish year two. There may be some ups and downs through this, because we need to transform sales, we need to transform back in operations in terms of how we're going to retire old processes and do new. And in doing so, we're going to get to this end state. But you need all of your stakeholders to be engaged, otherwise you do get that pressure to go big because, you know what Mark was saying, I've got 18 months, we need to be able to show improvement right away. >> We were talking about CIOs on another show that I was doing with Peter. And I think Peter made the comment that the CIO's job sometimes doesn't last three years. So these transformations can't be three years. They got to get things going quicker, more parallel. So it sounds like you guys are sharing data here at the event among peers >> Catherine: Yes. >> around these expectations. Is there anything in terms of the playbook? >> Catherine: Yes. >> Is it parallel, a lot of AGILE going on? How do you get those little wins for that big moment? >> So I think this is where the, what I would call, the League of Justice. You got to call in that League of Justice. For all you Superman out there. Because in many ways you're really challenged with running the business, and I think that's the pressure all of us are under. But when you think about speeding up that journey, it really is engaging partners, engaging, Oracle Marketing Cloud, our success and services team. I know you're going to be talking to Tony a little bit about some of the things we're building but that's where we can really come in and help accelerate and really demonstrate business value along the way. >> Well one more question I had for you. On the show floor, I noticed, was a lot of great traffic. Did you guys do anything different this year compared to last year when we talked to make this show a little bit more fluid? Because it seems to me the hallway conversation has been all about the adaptive intelligence and data is in every conversation that we have right now. What have you guys done differently? Did it magically just come to you, (Catherine laughing) Say, we're going to have to tighten it up this year? What was the aha moment between last year and this year? It's like night and day. >> I would like to think that we are our first and best customer, because as we ourselves are delivering technology, we ourselves also have to live what we tell our customers to do every day. Look at the data, look at the feedback. Understand what customers are telling you. How can you help customers achieve value? And we think of this as an important moment for our partners and our companies, that are here spending money and spending time to be here, achieve value. What we've done is really create an experience where it's so much easier to have those conversations. Really understanding the flow of traffic, and how we can actually ensure people are able to experience our partners, get to know them, get to know other customers. A lot of folks, too, have been saying, love keynote, love these different breakout sessions, but I want to connect with other folks going through that same thing that I am, so I can get some gems, get some ideas that I can pick up. >> And peer review is key in that. They talk to each other. >> Exactly. That's right, that's right. And so we've really enabled that, the way that we've laid out the experience this year. And I know it's even going to be better next year. Cause I know we're going to collect a lot more data. >> Well last year we talked a lot about data being horizontally scalable. That's all people are talking about now, is making that data free. The question for you is, in the customer success journeys you've been involved, what's the progress bar of the customer in terms of, because we live in Silicon Valley. So oh yeah, data driven marketer! Everyone's that. Well, not really. People are now putting the training wheels on to get there. Where are we on the progress bar for that data driven marketer, where there's really, the empathy for the users is there. There's no on that doubts that. But there's the empowerment piece in the organization. Talk about that piece. Where are we in that truly data driven marketer? >> Oh, we're still early days. It was obvious in talking to our various CMO's. We were talking about talent and the change, and what the team and the landscape needs to look like to respond to certainly what we've experienced in technology over the last number of years and then even what was introduced today. That level of, I need to have more folks that really understand data on my team but I'll tell you, I think the thing that's really interesting though about what we've been driving around technology and specifically AI. I love what Steve said, by the way, which is if a company is presenting AI as magic, well the trick's on you. Because truly, it's not that easy. So I think the thing that we need to think about and we will work with our customers on is that there's certainly a need and you have to be data driven but at the same time, we want to be innovation ready and looking and helping our customers see the future to the extent that how we think about what we're introducing is very practical. There's ways that we can help our customers achieve success in understanding their audience in a way that is, I wouldn't say, it's just practical. We can help them with use cases, and the way the technology is helping them do that, I think we're going to see a lot of great results this year. >> AI is great, I love to promote AI hype because it just makes software more cooler and mainstream, but I always get asked the question, how do you evaluate whether something is BS in AI or real? And I go, well first of all, what is AI? It's a whole 'nother story. It is augmented intelligence, that's my definition of it. But I always say, "It's great sizzle. Look for the steak." So if someone says AI, you got to look on the grill, and see what's on there, because if they have substance, it's okay to put a little sizzle on it. So to me, I'm cool with that. Some people just say, oh we have an AI magical algorithm. Uh, it's just predictive analytics. >> Catherine: Yes. >> So that's not really AI. I mean, you could say you're using data. So how do you talk to customers when they say, "Hey, AI magic or real? How do I grok that?" How do I figure it out? >> I think it's an important advancement, but we can't be distracted by words we place on things that have probably been around for a little while. It's an important way to think about the technology, and I think even Steve mentioned it on stage. But I think we're helping customers be smarter and empowering them to be able to leverage data in an easier way, and that's what we have to do. Help them, and I know this is talked a lot, not take the human and the people factor out because that's still required, but we're going to help them be able to concentrate on what they do best, whether it's, I don't want to have to diminish my creative team by hiring a bunch of data scientists. We don't want that. We want to be able to help brands and companies still focus on really understanding customers. >> You know, AI may be almost as old as Superman. >> Catherine: (laughing) I think you're right. >> Yeah, because it all comes back to Turing's test of whether or not you can tell the difference between a machine and a human being, and that was the 1930s. >> Well, neural networks is a computer science. It's a great concept, but with compute and with data these things really become interesting now. >> Peter: It becomes possible. >> Yeah, and it's super fun. But it promotes nuanced things like machine learning and Internet Of Things. These are geeky under-the-hood stuff that most marketers are like, uh what? Yeah, a human wearing a gadget is an Internet of Things device. That's important data. So then if you look at it that way, AI can be just a way to kind of mentally think about it. >> That's right, that's right. >> I think that's cool for me, I can deal with that. Okay, final question, Catherine, for you. >> Catherine: Yes. >> What's the most important thing that you think folks should walk away from Modern CX this year? What would you share from this show, given that, on the keynote, CMO Summit, hallways, exhibits, breakouts, if there's a theme or a catalyst or one? >> Peter: What should they put in the trip report? >> It's all about the people. I think that, if I were to distill it down, you think about that word bubble chart, that's people. I think that's the biggest word that came out of this. As much as technology is important, it's going to enable us, it's going to enable our people, and it's going to put a lot of attention on our talent and our folks that are going to be able to take our customers to the next level. >> And then people are the ones that are generating the data too, that want experiences, to them. >> Catherine: That's right. >> It's a people centric culture. >> Catherine: It is. >> Catherine Blackmore here on site, The CUBE, at Modern CX's The CUBE, with more live coverage here from the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas, live after this short break. (electronic music)

>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas! It's the CUBE, covering Oracle Modern Customer Experience 2017, brought to you by Oracle. >> Welcome back, and we are here live at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas for Oracle's Modern CX. I'm John Furrier with Silicon Angle. This is the CUBE and my co-host, Peter Burris here for two days of wall-to-wall coverage, day two. Doug Kennedy, Vice President of Business Development and Partner Strategy of Oracle, former Oracle, left Oracle, went to NetSuite, now back at Oracle running partners... Great to have you on the CUBE. >> Yeah great to be here. >> Thanks for joining us. We were just talking before we rolled live about some of the history and some of the dynamics in the industry, and it's a very interesting time, because the partner landscape is becoming a critical linchpin for this digital transformation as the vendors get Cloud and the suppliers become "Cloudified" if you will. The roll of the partners is beyond strategic, it's actually technical. >> Well you've got to look at actually the expertise that you need to actually work with the customer. Always sit in the customer's seat and look back at the vendors and the partner eco-system to determine what they need to be successful. And candidly, we bring part of it as Oracle, partners bring the rest of it, whether it's industry expertise, vertical expertise, they deeply understand agencies, whatever that expertise is, we have to figure out the right partnership with them to go be successful together, and that's the trick, and that's why partners are so important right now. >> And what's the message and focus here at Modern CX? Obviously it's not just pillars of solutions, it's, you got a little bit of a unification, you have this Modern CX, who's got a platform (mumbles). What's the conversation like with partners here? >> So, the ones that I've been having this week... So I've been back all of seven weeks, so I'm rolling out a new partner strategy pretty quickly here, and I introduced it to several of our top partners here this week, and it really is to specialize and focus on the prioritization you can bring to our partnerships. That it's back to specialization. I roll everything back, I've done partnering for, good lord, a couple of decades now. The number one question is, How do we both be profitable? We're in partnerships actually each make money and win together. So back it up to that and look at how they specialize, and don't get too thin, don't get too wide, but look at what you're successful at doing as a partner, and for us to then figure out how to work together in that partnership to go win. So I've been amplifying that up with the partners this week. You'll fail if you're spread too thin and trying to be everything to everyone, and I'm pushing the partners to make sure they bring that to the forefront with us first, before we actually go engage the prospects and customers. So I'm kind of backing up again with a lot of these partners. >> So it's not a general purpose philosophy? >> Doug: Nope. >> It's really, find some swim lanes... Everyone's got a unique specialty, I mean PWC has got their thing, now Deloitte, Accenture, they all kind of have their swim lanes developing, but specialism, it seems to have much more domain expertise, now I was talking to Accenture CTO of analytics, Jean-Luc Chatelain, and they have tons of data scientists. They're coding away! Before they used to be project managers, now they got coders, so seeing that transformation, is that also a dynamic you're seeing? >> Yeah, definitely seeing that. If you look at our eco-system, we've got a little over a thousand partners right now that focus on OMC, the Marketing Cloud. They're ISV's, they're the old traditional SI's shifting into more manage services vein, and still doing implementations. Then you get the agencies, which is unique in and of itself because they're running on behalf of their customers. They understand the marketing industry deeply, so now they're taking our solutions and running on behalf of customers, but they're also a partner type. So it's determining which type you are, and some, by the way, are all three. So how do we work with them most effectively? Cause this is a co-sell model. >> And what's the plan? Can you give any details to the strategy? >> Well the strategy is, first of all, there is an ideal partner profile for each of those partner categories. And to replicate that, the programs we're putting in place, we want more of those that fit what I call the ideal partner profile, which comes, at the end of the day, they're going to be profitable, we're going to be profitable. But if you look at the agency model, you know, how do they actually have the reach in coverage with the customers that they currently actually service? How can we actually work with them to introduce our solutions into that product mix that they already use in their managed operations environment? How do we make sure we're bringing that to the forefront in a way that values the agency's business and then also values their customers? Right? So that's unique just 'cause we're in a sense dealing with two customers. We're dealing with the agencies as a partner who's running on behalf of their customers, but we have to have a solution that fits that equation. Think of it that way. >> But there's something else going on, I want to test you with this. >> Sure. >> That is, it used to be that the traditional partner model, you know, the on-premise orientated partnership model was that the partner was a channel partner, they might embed their software on top of the product, et cetera, but Oracle could be good, and the partner could be good. If Oracle's really good and the partner's okay, it still could work out. This more deeply integrated world where data is the asset, and how you flow it and the speed with which it flows, and the degree to which you can show that end to end coherence is going to determine winners or losers. That means that whoever is the weakest link is the weakest link for every, or sets the quality for everybody to a degree. How is that going to change the way you talk to partners? Because they're going to have to step up their game in a big way for Oracle to be able to step up the game. >> Right, now great question. So we have a co-selling model first of all, right? We have indirect in certain markets--Japan and some of the southeast Asia markets are indirect-- so we will rely on the partners to do most of the selling as well as the delivery and managed services. The rest of the world's co-sell. So with our co-sellers, half of the equation is our own people, so I'm doing a couple different things. First of all, on our side, we're defining roles and responsibities of co-selling and making sure that our own sales people know, not who to engage, how to engage the partner. Going back to the basics of how early you pull them in, do you have them do pre-sales? Do you do pre-sales? Who does the demos? Basically through the entire sales cycle, defining roles and responsibilities. And taking that same set of rules to the partners. So we actually have ground rules on how we want to engage through the sales cycle. The last, and this important point, the last thing you want is for the partner and our own sales rep to meet each other in the prospects lobby at the 11th hour of a sales cycle. We're trying to fix that, but more importantly you raised a really good point. What am I asking the partners to step up and do? We're just putting in place, depending on the partner type, six different criteria, there's also a seventh criteria, that I'm measuring our best partners by. It's around capability to execute locally on both pre-sales and technical implementations and operations. I'm looking at revenue, I'm looking at number of customer ads so you're not just out shooting elephants once a year, but you're also bringing in a volume with us. I'm looking at references. That's the proof in the pudding, that you're capable of maintaining that environment and you're helping your customers derive the most value out of the service and solution. And then the last one is really looking at are you in an industry in a vertical and can you bring that to the forefront effectively in co-selling. So I'm putting a bar out there that says, these are the criteria, you've got to get to over this bar to be one of the partners I take into my co-selling engine and promote you to my sales force. So extremely prescriptive on who we're going to co-sell with. >> So it's sales synergy, not conflict. >> Doug: Exactly. >> So you're trying to identify hand-in-glove kind of fit points. >> Doug: Defining how and who. >> Let me offer one other one and see if this resonates with you, make one other suggestion, is that especially for partners that are part of the Cloud mix, have you talked about end-to-end performance, end-to-end effectiveness, end-to-end efficiency, and start to benchmark some of these partners and say, you're doing okay, but we got other folks over here who (crosstalk). I mean the time of execution, the number of errors that are generated, all these other things, because we're now talking about an integration that is not just in the marketing function, not just in the selling function, not just in the service function, but in the execution. That that's where the customer's going to determine whether the partnership is working. Are you starting to look at some of those measures as well? >> Yes, so the back end of this, I'm now looking at a report that says where are we churning? Where are we actually having down sales, in other words the subscription's not renewd at the same level, and I'm correlating that report for the first time back to the associated partner. Then I could sit back down with them and say, look, we're correlating you to a certain percentage of churn, what do we need to do to fix this? Is it better education? Are you not focusing on the whole life cycle of the customer? So we'll be able to come back at that with the partners as well. We haven't done a very good job of that, candidly. It's kind of the front of the sale, move through, get 'em running and then once in a while we turn up to make sure they're delighted, and that they're renewing. You can't do that any more. >> The interesting thing that you're getting at is, I hate to say, eat your own dog food or drink your own champagne or whatever you want to call it. You guys are saying here, use data and change business practices. >> Doug: Exactly. Exactly. >> So you're going to look at the data and bring that in, but the data model is first, if I hear you correctly is, identify clearly your parameters for ideal partnership. >> Doug: Yup. >> On a profitable win/win scenario. >> Yup, who we're working with, and then define how we're working together so our field can effectively co-sell with them. >> Okay so what's the reaction? I mean, the agency I can see has a potential, a lot of moving parts there, so I think that's challenging in general, just agencies are different than more committed partners, (mumbles), I don't mean to put down the agency, but agencies have a lot of moving parts. >> Doug: Yeah. >> What has been the reaction from agencies and the other different types of partners? >> And this is literally this week for the past three days have been meeting with a lot of the top partners. >> John: Standing ovation? >> They're very pleased, they said we want this approach. 'cause candidly if I say, Look, here's why I'm going to bet on you and here's why I'm going to work with you, you can invest ahead of the curve. Most partners aren't going to invest ahead of the curve. They kind of look in the rear view mirror and go, Yeah I got a couple of deals last month, I'm going to maybe start adding capacity. I could say, Look we're committing to you in these regions in these areas and here's how we're working together. It gives them more confidence to start investing ahead of the curve with us. And that's the best, you don't want them lagging behind the demand. >> And what about the swim lanes we talked about, I call swim lanes, you said specialty? Because that seems to be on the partner, not saying, well you could bring a lot to the table and say, here's how we think you might be fit based on the parameters, but that's a transformation that the partners are going through. Are you being proactive in recommending? Are they coming to you? They seem to be kind of in swim lanes... >> If you leave it up to the partner, they'll come to you. And I swim in every lane and I do everything. In a past life, what I was able to do and I've done a little bit now we're going to finish this job, I was able to run transactions through D & B for the past three years of my partner system. And partners would say, I play in every industry and every vertical, and I'd bring data back and say, actually, no you don't. Here's where you focus. >> John: They hope to be in every vertical. >> Right, they want to, they want to, and that's how they fail, they spread themselves too thin. But we come back with the data to say, look, here's where your references are, here's where the majority of your revenue has come from. I'm going to promote you in these swim lanes. You can move into another swim lane over time, but let's focus here. And we've done that. We've actually, we're about 95% through this exercise over the past six weeks. I've taken some of the maps back to some of the partners to say, here's where we believe we're going to win with you. That's an exercise we're going to finish over the next couple of months, and it'll evolve over time, but those are going to be the swim lanes. I'm glad you use that, I use that privately. Which swim lanes are they in and how do I promote those to be the swim lanes my co-sellers are going to work with them on? And that's the way we work. By the way, it helps them with capacity too. If I'm missing somebody in a swim lane, I will first of all try to take somebody out of the lane and get 'em into an adjacent lane for capacity. They like that, instead of just bringing somebody new in. >> I mean I always say the partner business is pretty straight forward, it comes down to money right? What's in it for me, I want to make some cash. Profitability is really important. I think it's cool that you're being transparent about it, saying, hey we're in business to make money, let's just put that on the table. 'Cause, they're going to posture and, at the end of the day, it's what's in it for me? >> I still think that this notion of moving from a product orientation to a service orientation which Cloud describes means a churn, CX, those types of measures, at the end of the day if Oracle's going to win, it has to be able to demonstrate to the marketplace, our eco-system operates better than anybody else's eco-system. >> Doug: Right. >> And starting to bake some of those measures and bake some of those ways of thinking into the relationship so the partners are lifting their game up, it's going to be really crucially important. >> Well the eco-system thing is going to be tested by the fact that, at the end of the day, at least my experience in talking to customers and experience in dealing with the partners, is at the end of the day, the 11th hour sales conflict is ultimately the indicator of if it's working or not. If this conflict with the customer and trust, like, wait a minute, this guy's not going to deliver, that's an undertone that, if that sentiment's there, it's not working. If it's working, pass, shoot, score! Everyone's happy! Sales guy gets comped on the Oracle side, feeding more business to the partner, you know this is a relationship where it flows to the good partners. >> Right, that's why you don't deal with... all thousand can play in the eco-system, but you place your bets on the top ones and get that right, and that's where your growth is going to come from. >> John: It's gamification. >> Also, also, think of it another way is that, I'd rather give the next dollar to one of my top partners that fits my ideal partner profile and can drive growth with me, than to give it to the person on the tail end of the tail, because they can't turn that same dollar into more revenue together. The guys at the top of the pyramid are more capable of reinvesting in our business. >> And the emerging ones that have an ascention vision of sending up and to be a partner will see the cash being doled out and will align... >> And we're going to be transparent of where the bar is. You want to get there? Here's the things you've got to be able to do. >> Right, and how are you guys helping them with any kind of soft, this is to say, partners say, hey Oracle, thanks for the mentoring thanks for the clarity, I really want to be in the swim lane, and I'm willing to invest. What are you going to do for me? >> So the education and training for them... Some of them, as we look at their profile and how successful they are, we will grandfather them in to certain lanes as well. Like, this isn't, go off into a dark room and prove to me you're successful and pop your head up and I may like you. We're going to still look at that next trench of partners that want to get above that bar and work with them, because if we get them over the bar we'll be successful, we'll be more successful, so we have to help them through training and education and enablement as well to be able to do that, and some opportunities to participate in different marketing programs and campaigns. >> Well you're a pro. It's good to co-sell and it's challenging, and it's got a great, I like the formula. Seven days in... >> Doug: Seven weeks. >> Seven weeks in. What's your feedback on the show? Thoughts? >> No this is very good. It's good for a variety of reasons. Obviously the customer focus is extremely good. The other thing it does for our partners is it gives them a chance to network. Because a customer doesn't just buy one solution from one partner. Typically our sales involve three or four partners at times. It gives them a networking opportunity and I'm trying to aggregate those solutions together into more of a complete offering, and we're just one part of that equation. So these type of events help those partners network together and we drive some of that networking as well. >> Doug Kennedy. So next year when we're sitting on the CUBE at a location, maybe here, maybe somewhere else, what's success in your mind for one year out in terms of in your mind's eye, what do you want to see happening, envision happening for next year's event? >> Well a stake in the ground for our own eco-system is we've doubled the impact of our co-selling through our top line with partners. That's a pretty big challenge, but that's what I'm committing to. It's a big net that we're going to go after. But also here you're going to have a partner eco-system, to be blunt, they're more profitable. They're doing better. They actually want more. I would argue we're going to have more people attending here from my partner eco-system next year, hungry for more information and more opportunities to work together. That's success. >> You're going to grow it up top line and grow the eco-system. >> Yup, and other partners that are not part of that growth, wanting it. 'Cause if you make some poster children, the rest are going to want more of that. So we'll see more of a herd mentality start. >> Doug Kennedy in charge of Business Development and Partners here at Oracle on the CUBE. I'm John Furrier with Peter Barris. We'll be back with more live coverage after this short break.

(energetic music) >> Voiceover: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, Covering Oracle Modern Customer Experience 2017. Brought to you by Oracle. (upbeat music) >> Hey, welcome back and we are here live in Las Vegas at Mandalay Bay Convention Center for Oracle's Modern C-EX, Modern Customer Experience Event. Part of Oracle Marketing Cloud, I am John Furrier with SiliconANGLE. My co-host Peter Burris, head of research at Wikibon.com. Our next guest is Adrian Chang, director of customer programs at Oracle Marketing Cloud, also emcee of the Markie and big part of that program. Congratulations on the success of the Markie's awards, which were given out last night. I read your blog post on the site this morning. >> Thank you >> Great to see you again and welcome back to theCUBE. >> Thank you for having me, always great to be here and I love Modern Customer Experience and that marketing is a part of it. >> It's really been a great transformation this year. The simplification of just now narrowing it down to one simple value president, Modern Customer Experience, which encapsulates a lot of stuff. Quickly review what that is and then let's talk about the Markies. >> Absolutely, so I start with the Markies and so we have a history of celebrating excellence in data-driven modern marketing. So, this program has grown tremendously over the past 11 years. When I look at the submissions, they're customers that are focusing on acquisition and loyalty retention. And they read these stories all the time and spend weeks preparing the submissions. So this event is all about how can we share our intent to have our customers have a good experience as part of Oracle and then how can we help them delight their customers in delivering experiences and create value at every touch point. >> One of the thing I really like about the change in the name from Modern Marketing Experience to Modern Customer Experience is you move from the process, the function, to the outcome and the result. So how are the Markies reflecting that this year? >> Absolutely. So if you think about where we started, again it was six categories celebrating excellence in B2B marketing and reaching folks behind a single device, their laptop computer. So cut to 2017, the customers' preferences, their activities are fluid. So great marketing requires you to use a series of channels to reach them everywhere. And so, marketers have to balance brand with action, and then also deliver on intent. So the Markies have had to evolve to think about the habits. So the account-based marketing team of the year was a new award that we gave out that really represented the intent. Are people actually doing this, we have tons of great stories. So we have to balance out a bit of the usage of the product and the technology and embracing the new strategies and what's current within the marketplace. >> So the future of marketing as it goes into data, that's been the theme here. All of our interviews, day one. And certainly the key notes, even Mark was giving a great specific example. Now data is at the heart of it. Adaptive intelligence is the theme. You can see the dots are connecting the convergence of where the Markies are showing traction are some pretty interesting use cases. Any notables you'd like to share that kind of highlight that data piece? >> Absolutely. So our winner for best email campaign was from Jetstar and they're an airline in Austraila. What's great is they have been able to find ways to-- so when you get an email about travel, sometimes you book at one particular point and your preferences and relationship with that airline may change. Your travel destinations may change. So the fact that they can optimize the information at the time of send, sending the weather, curing you to maybe upsell and look at other opportunities to have a pleasant experience, that's amazing. So Laura Ipsen spent some time talking about how we at Oracle are looking to evolve preferences, so going from one to many, to one to one, and the hallmark which is one to you. And I think the Jetstar campaign, they use Oracle responses as a perfect example of that. The first award that we gave out was to Covance for account-based team of the year and by doing, setting up an account-based marketing strategy, putting it in place, getting all the stakeholders in sales in place, getting the discipline on the content. They were able to increase their engagement with key accounts by a significant margin. And they were delighted to be among those that are partners to celebrate that achievement. >> Adrian, I want you to talk about, for the folks that are watching who aren't here, the buzz in the hallways, because the hallways is always a good conversation, certainly the lunch table as well. I'll include that technically at the hallway, but people sitting down. >> Absolutely. >> AI has been front and center, but it's not being painted over, white-washed, "Oh! AI! It's hot so let's jump on the bandwagon." There's some real tech involved. What has been the reaction from customers in used cases that you hear in the hallways? >> Customers are excited about it. I think for a lot of our customers had the opportunity to hear Mark Heard talk about it. Where he embraced and said, "If you think about AI at the core, it's computing done real fast to help people make really rich decisions about what to do next." And so, I think our customers are still grappling with all the technology and how to get value out of their core platforms, how do they deliver on their initial objective and then we have a subset of our most mature, most excited, who are starting to put those data plots together, and start getting more predictive and allow the machine to do the work for you. But in order for you to have, to even think about it, you've got to have great, you've got to fill the cup with great data. And I think people are still getting there so that the machine isn't biased and you don't make the wrong decision about how to treat your customers. >> So just notable trending tweets I wanted to share with you, and again, get your reactions, because this is speaking to the customer in used case. One was from a part from our digitizing panel, Mark wrote "According to digitize, if you're not looking to use chatbots and AI, you're going to be out of business hashtag MME17", a little bit of that, legacy there. And then hashtag Modern CX. And the other one is, "Netflix is a great example of a company creating content combined with powerful AI targeting programs." Little bit of sample of some of the things we're seeing. Chatbots. It's a new interface. It's a new way to use data. Netflix content, which modern marketers need content in this platform. Picking a Netflix approach. So, kind of begs a question. Chatbots? Netflix? Kind of modern. Email? Old? So how do you get a marketer to get you to use the reliability of hardened critical infrastructure, like email, not going away anytime soon but, it's going to be one dimension of Netflix. Content marketing. Binge watching. All this content out there. Netflix and chatbots interface. Your thoughts? >> So my thought is I am, so I was in the room when I watched the chatbot piece and I loved the fact of the, we could live in a world where we could have a fluid customer experience anywhere. You can ask a question. I also support our communities where you ask a question and know you're automatically going to get an answer to the algorithm. So that delivers on that one to you scenario. So I'm super excited about it. When I look at the Netflix example, even to get the information on what the recommendation engine should be, you still need a lot of data. And you still need to know what are the habits of your customers who even land on that decision tree. So I love the fact that folks are thinking Netflix and thinking content, but that chatbot thing, oh my goodness. When people start doing that I can't wait to see those customers that win those Markies. >> Peter: But they have to do it right. >> They have to do it right. >> One of the dangers that marketing always faces is the idea that it's all about collecting information, having the customer give something to me and not giving something valuable in return. >> Adrian: Absolutely >> And the challenge that I see with chatbots is, and I think you agree John, is are chatbots going to be used to further automate information collection at the expense of really presenting value. The new marketing, the Modern Customer Experience, has to be focused on are we delivering value with the customer at every single interaction, not is the customer doing more for us inside of marketing. What do you think about that? >> So I agree. Cause if we do not know that we are creating value and that we're not, that we're adding friction into the problem, you pour that into your algorithm, there's going to bias. And so then, you can't make a decision about how to feed information into the machine and not have the right information that says we don't have the right region, we don't understand the behavior across all products. You can't have bias in the model at all. It has to be complete for you to then look at your customer base holistically. >> Yeah, we don't want to better automate bad marketing practices. >> Adrian: Absolutely. >> We want to use these technologies to continuously drive to use a famous person's parlance a more perfect union between this marketer and the buyer. >> Adrian: Absolutely. >> John: Well you got a great article up on Martechseries, "This year has gone above and beyond, fully leverage and most innovative marketing technology to create customer centric campaigns that deliver outstanding results that Laurie has spent, Senior Vice President Chairman." Okay that's obviously marketing packaging for the quote, from PR, but what she's getting at is customer centric. Again this is the theme, multitude of technologies now in the platform. Very interesting. Are customers responding well to this platform and are they seeing the need to stand up thing quickly in these campaigns? >> Adrian: Absolutely. They are finding that there's more pressure to get interim value. They are absolutely buying into the platform message and we have quite a few customers who also were recognized for the use of multiple products and multiple partner related applications. And so we're actually seeing a nice trend in both. To do great marketing, part of the messaging, or part of Laura's talk track from today was people are freaked out about the data but if you find a way to harness it, you'll create experiences where you'll stop chasing the customers. They'll start chasing you cause you'll find the right way to have the conversation with them. >> And word of mouth gets around too. I'm going to ask you to pick your favorite child of the awards. Was there one that jumps out, without alienating all the winners. Is there one that you like? >> This is a really, really hard question for me. As you know I read all the submissions, I play a heavy role in writing the speech. So it's really hard. >> John: Here we go, the preamble, not picking one. Here we go! I don't like to pick my favorite child. No parent likes to do that. >> I don't like to pick my favorite child. This is a really, really hard thing. >> Okay, audience favorite? >> How are they different this year from last year? How about that? Or is there something general that shows, that kind of reinforces some of this customer experience or are you seeing a progress in how the Markies are evolving? >> Yeah, that's a great question. So I'm happy to answer that one. And so for the first time since 2012, we brought back the dinner. And so having the Markies and our customer celebration, it shows our intent as Oracle Marketing Cloud, for our customers as well. That we love and want them to have a great week and want to celebrate their accomplishments and get other people to the winning circle. So being at a table and feeling that energy, getting that opportunity to sit with an executive or sit with a member of a team is a really, really great lift to then come to an event with over 4,000 people and feel warm and feel included. So I think that was an important part, that was a huge feel. I mentioned that we added a account-based team of the year award. Again, you couldn't be in B2B marketing and hide from account-based marketing. It's everywhere. We also delivered an overall customer experience award, so we had two customer-related awards and we created one category. I personally the videos, so our best video submission categories won where the viewers got to pick. And I would say the reaction of Juniper taking home two trophies last night, if I had to pick one, because that one had bit of a go to it. >> Peter: Juniper? >> Juniper Networks. >> Really? >> John: Two awards. >> They won two awards last night. I loved their reaction as well as the reaction of our folks from Brazil. You know, really, really great stories from their use of data. We also had Chris Diaz, our leader of the year, who not only led really strong customer experience transformations across marketing, sales, and service. >> This is the CMO of Time Warner? >> Uh no, that's Kristin. >> Kristi? >> Uh yeah, that's Kristin at Time Warner. I'm talking about Chris Diaz who is also driving sustainability efforts in Africa. It's really transformational. Huge, huge advocate of Oracle. As is the team at Kenya Airways. There's some really feel good moments. There are really exciting moments, you can feel it. People were hugging each other. People were laughing. People brought their own noise cannons and sparklers. >> Who doesn't love an awards show? When you're giving out great trophies? >> You know, we always get the comparison to the Oscars, and so this year it felt like the Golden Globes. >> So you handed out the wrong award. >> So you had a couple of times when the winner, when the wrong winner was >> We actually did not have that but we actually did joke about it. We embraced it. So Kayla Sullivan helped us with the awards distribution. And that was fun. The trophy itself is actually made by the same designer who makes the Emmy. And I believe I said that last year. But the feel was more like the Golden Globes. There was refreshments and opportunity to have there. >> John: It was well done. It looked great on photos. Big crowd. You had the jibs and all the cameras. Great camera angles. >> We had a drone do the delivery so we played with some new drone deliveries >> John: That's the next one up on Amazon delivering your packages by drone, you know, dropping in. >> Absolutely. Absolutely. So we had one delivered via tweet and then we had one that was delivered via drone and so we covered all their risk management pieces in advance. And I'm just super happy that InVision, who partnered with us in hosting and producing the event, were able to get some of these things cleared. So our intent was let's be futuristic, let's be digital, let's be now. And they managed to incorporate that into the show for us. >> Well, Adrian. Congratulations on all the great work with the Markies and continued success. What's next next year? What do you guys look, I know, processing, you got to have a little fun now. Relax a little bit. But as you look forward to next year's Markies, you're watching, you've got your submission. It's kind of like the college admissions. You want to know who the judge is. Here he is. What are you looking for for next year? Have you though about it, any ideas? Random thoughts? >> Yeah, it's a great question. It takes us about seven months to actually plan. To sit down and actually plan our calendar from submission peer, the content. And so, we tend to create the categories that are aspirational. So we likely will figure out what's the best way to incorporate the trend. Get them out early to drive customers to get really excited about what's next. We're talking about AI now. What will we be talking about in six months? I'm looking forward to to hearing more customers share about the value their getting from Marketing Cloud, the new channels that they're using, how they've overcome barriers within their organizations to do new and great things. And really focus on taking these stories and telling them all year. >> And that's speed and empowerment. >> Yes. Absolutely. >> Adrian Chang. Here in theCUBE back with Markies update with great commentary. Great to see you. Looking great, love the outfit. Lookin' good, as always. Thank you for taking the time and sharing your perspective. >> Thanks for having me. >> Peter: Took me a while to figure out what that was though The flower. What is that thing? From here it's like >> It's good. Looks good on you. Adrian Chang, here inside theCUBE bringing all the Markie action, all the great coverage. It's theCUBE. We'll have more live coverage after the short break. (energetic music)

>> Announcer: Live from Las Vegas, it's the Cube! Covering Oracle Modern Customer Experience 2017. Brought to you by Oracle. (light, upbeat music) >> Hey, welcome back everyone. We're here live in Las Vegas at the Mandalay Bay. This is the Cube. Silicon Angle's flagship program, where we go out to the events and extract the noise. I'm John Furrier with my co-host Peter Burris, Head of Research at Silicon Angle, Wikibon.com. And our next guest is Steve Krauss, Group Vice President of Product Management for Oracle Marketing Cloud. Great to see you again, welcome back to the cube. >> Thank you John. >> So a lot of great announcements today. I want to just jump into it. First of all, you've got a great job. You've got the product side. You've been busy this year, so congratulations. Some announcements I want to get your reaction to that we saw today. The Adaptive Intelligence, love that. I love how it speaks to the data in motion, real time needs of applications. >> Peter: 150 milliseconds >> 150 milliseconds boot shot. We got that on the queue, so it's on the record. It's going to be good, it's going to be good. And also the chat bot thing, which big fan of chat bots as an illustration of what's coming. Not so much as chat bots by themselves, but it does speak to the new user interactions, the new interfaces, new ways to notify and inform as part of that experience. This is some heavy tech, so I want, the first question is AI. Everyone seems to be washing thereselves. Oh, we've got A.I. >> Yeah, Yeah. >> Well that's just predictive analytics, that's been done before. >> Steve: M-Hmm. But Augmented Intelligence or Artificial Intelligence and Neural Networks have been around for a while. What are you guys doing specifically on the product side? Because this is super exciting announcements, to make Adaptive Intelligence work, what's the key tech? >> Steve: Yeah, Well there's a couple things. In fact, I think often when people talk about AI, they want to go immediately to the algorithms and think that somehow that is the only secret sauce. And the reality is, you know, like a lot of things in the world of computing, you put bad data into one of these things and you get bad results out. You put good data, you get good results. You put better data, that's when things start getting really interesting. And so one of the neat things about the marketing version of Adaptive Intelligence is called Adaptive Intelligence Offers, is that it has the ability to not just take the data that the marketer has, but it can reach into something called the Oracle Data Cloud and get additional data to drive better signal into the AI algorithms to make them run better. So we're bringing a data advantage to the table, and then probably as you've heard from the AI apps people, there's already a heritage at Oracle for building these real time decisioning systems. And so you've got these algorithms that are real time, that can adapt every click, update themselves, make the models go better. If you've tracked data mining for a long time, data mining contests, honestly the winner in second place is usually a very small margin. We think really that data piece is going to be the thing that's going to be the biggest differentiator. Because there's a lot of smart people with really great adaptive algorithms. So we're bringing both to the table. >> John: Okay, data or algorithms, there's always been the chicken in the egg syndrome. >> Yeah. >> Is it algorithms or the data, data or algorithms? A lot of people are voting in the crowd, that conversation we're involved in, data trumps algorithms. >> Steve: I would vote that way as well. I think there's far greater variance in what you can do with data if you collect it in a smart way. And in the case of Oracle, we've assembled this massive data cloud. It's not something someone else can casually do. The reality is with a lot of the algorithms, Google's open sourcing a lot of tents are slow, and so we'll see. I mean, it's not like we are chumps with the algorithms. We take that stuff very seriously, but the data itself just make everything more better. >> John: But the right tool for the right job is the same premise, you articulate for algorithms. Pick your tool, pick your algorithm, but if you don't have the data, you're SOL anyway. >> Peter: As you've mentioned John, the algorithms have been around a long time. What's new is that we now have so many more data sources, so we have data for the first time. >> John: And massive compute. >> And now we have massive compute that can be set up easily, so we actually do something with it. I want to point out, I want to test ya on this, we had Jack Berkowitz on honorly which is the source the 150 millisecond. Jack noted that Oracle aspires to be able to have the right answer anywhere in the world inside 150 milliseconds. Which is an amazing, amazing vision, and for most people who think of the cloud, they think of data flying all over the place. >> Steve: Yeah. For you guys, Jack said something very interesting, and I want to, as a proof point, Jack said, "Yeah but sometimes you don't have to move the data." >> Steve: Yes. >> And one of the advantages that you guys have, I think, which is what I want to test you on, is that by having a relatively complete, installed set of capabilities, you have that primary person data-first person data, and there is an advantage to not having to move it. Could you just articulate that a little bit? What does that... >> John: Is that true? >> First of all, is that true, and what kind of possibilities does that open up for Oracle and Oracle customers if it is true? >> Steve: Well yeah, I think you are onto something. Oracle obviously has the long heritage of having many enterprises and government's data in Oracle systems already in the first place. And those investments have been made. And so when you start talking about, "Let's add to that, let's add applications like Adaptive Intelligence offers." Well instead of saying we have to do these massive data transfers it may well be the case at this point that that data is resident an Oracle data center in the first place, and of course Oracle owns its own data centers. These are all world wide, so there's a bunch of advantages to the Oracle scale here. And one of them is that we don't have to move the mountain. Right? The mountain is already in the Oracle database, and we can go and put these services next to it that allow an ease of integration. And John, we were talking about this before we started here. It matters to make this stuff work fast when its a year long project to see if maybe its going to fly. That's no longer a reasonable thing, and so agility matters. Having the data where you already need it is great. >> John: Well and also the trend is system of record database and mountains of corpuses of stuff that you can tap into which you are pointing out, but also, I believe that the winner of all this will use a term that's used in the cloud industry: Standing Up Apps. >> Steve: Uh-huh. And I think that one of the things that's very clear to me if you look at the SAS marketplace where it's, and I think Mark Hurd said this, "There is no past, it's a SAS." So, in infrastructure, so and you kind of see in the separation, you have to have stuff done in weeks-apps. And I mean literally, not months, weeks. >> Steve: Yeah. >> And I would argue that minutes become it. So with that as a backdrop, how do you look at microservices? Because now, if look at, out of the move the data, so I might want to compose something and send it somewhere else, and move an app to the edge of the network or have a retail lab or do something in email. So now I can compose an app from data here and then move it so that brings up orchestration, microservices, and some of these cloud native concepts. How do you guys deal with that? >> Steve: Yeah, well let me give you the marketing part of this in terms of the Oracle Marketing Cloud. Because there are so many parts of Oracle, they have their own versions. For us, one of the big things we want is to have this concept called Orchestration that says if I'm a marketer, I should be able to reach my customer wherever he or she welcomes my messaging. These days, it no longer is just email. These are people who getting mobile messaging, they're potentially interacting with things like chat bots, it's become very fragmented. And so what Oracle wants to do is provide these Orchestration systems that allow apps plug in some that we build, but others that third parties build. So that as this complexity increases and there's more ways you can communicate, we can keep up with this in an agile way either ourselves or with others who do this really well. So that's one of the theories. >> John: It's the marketing cloud plus it's broader Oracle suite-cloud suite. >> Steve: Beautiful, yes. It's the Oracle Cloud suite which includes Oracle CX. It also includes something that we call the Oracle Marketing App Cloud, which is this third party ecosystem. Because we're Oracle, we have a lot of customers, we have hundreds of companies that say, "Yeah, I would love my stuff to get in the hands of Oracle's customer base." The way I'm going to do it is I'm going to make a turn key integration. So that when they buy it from me, they can just request turn it on for Oracle, and it will, again as you said, "Don't make it weeks, make it minutes." It's minutes when the integration is already done. >> So software business Larry Ellison, founder of Oracle, still around one of the legends of the industry. Larry, if you're watching, you're still hanging around, taking names and kicking butt. Started off with shrink wrap software, then download on the internet, then you SAS, now you have SAS plus coming on. Which is smarter apps, smarter customer experience. So it begs the question on this next journey for customers, it's going to be really cloud all the way right. >> Steve: Yeah. >> So you're going to have to have this cloud component, you guys have a strategy there. Isn't Oracle moving away from, a smarter CX's data by the way, so Oracle's no longer a software company. You're a data company. >> Steve: M-hmm. >> Data is eating the world. Yeah no, software is eating the world, which Marc Andreessen wrote, now data is eating software. >> Steve: Uh-huh. How do you view that because some people say that software is never going to go away. But data is becoming much more of a front burner issue, vis-a-vis just like software was in software development. >> Steve: Sure, well I think some of this is just semantics as where software leave off and data begin. But a great example is the thing you talked about earlier, Adaptive Intelligence, where part of the power of this, what makes it different from what you can get elsewhere is that it comes with data included that is different data then is available from anyone else. And so, in fact, you know Oracle, when it made the big investment in the data cloud, people I think thought, "What are you doing, you just set up a vending machine for data? Is that what Oracle's going to be about?". And the answer there is no. I mean there is a good data business, but where it gets profound is when that strategic asset, all that data, all of the sudden enables new products like Adaptive Intelligence Offers to be fundamentally different than came before. >> John: It's an enabling technology. >> It can be absolutely, yes. >> John: Data is enabling. It brings to life apps and then offers new apps opportunities. That's what you said. >> Steve: Yes, and marking data very much is the fuel for the marketing engine. So you get richer fuel, you will get richer results. >> John: Alright, so we're getting down the weeds here, so bottom line, let's up level it up for the person that's watching and saying, "Hey, I got the message." >> Steve: Yeah. >> "Data is super important." >> Steve: Yeah. Bottom line, what is happening this week here in Modern CX that's important for the person that has to scratch their head, isn't inside the ropes in the industry? What's going off of their world? What should they be thinking about? How should they be planning their life moving forward in this new modern era of marketing? >> Steve: Yeah, so I think the big things announced this week definitely involves things like a new level of being able to do recommendations of offers and products using the Oracle Data Cloud. It involves conversational user interfaces such as the new chat bot's platform. And in the case of the marketing cloud, we've got a series of products that have come out that allow a greater degree of self service for both marketers as well as their stakeholders like sales people. So how does the sales person get the output of a marketing automation system? Sales people aren't necessarily known for assiduously going and looking for marketing assets. We've got some new things around, for example, content portals. We've got some new things around features that let people be more autonomous in getting their own work done rather than needing to go to some other system somewhere. >> John: Awesome. And the customer we had on this morning from Royal Philips, really was the head of CRM. So customer relationship management is not a new concept obviously, you guys have a big chunk of business there in the software side of it. But customer relationship management, that is marketing cloud now >> Steve: M-Hmm. >> and customer experiences. So you're starting to see that really go to the next level. What's the big take away for the person at home? Watching in their businesses as they go on their journeys. How should they be thinking about the customer relationship? >> Peter: Well, that's a big question. I think for a CRM oriented person who maybe started out in something like database marketing, where you had a list, and you somehow try to learn about people on the list, that world has gotten a lot bigger now. Where it used to be you learned about someone once they became your customer. These days, though various advertising technologies, you can learn about people you don't yet know, but you know of their existence. And you can start creating that relationship, hoping to draw them in maybe with ads to the point where they do self identify. So there's this whole front end to CRM that is showing up in ad tech with things like DMP's-Data Management Platforms, that solve the same problem, but do it in these whole other realms. >> John: And new channels. Adaptive Intelligence, I think, is an awesome position. Love that Adaptive Intelligence Apps, Apps being stood up on a platform. You guys have it. >> Steve: Yes. >> Where's the next level? Take us through, you run the product rode map. You know, share with the folks, what's on the road maps? What should they be expecting more from Oracle, where are you going to be doubling down, where's the work you filling the white spaces, and what should they expect of the next year? >> Steve: Sure. Well, at least in my key note this morning which again focused on marketing, we had four themes. One was intelligence, we already talked about that one quite a bit. Another is mobile, and that's not just mobile like chat bots, but it's actually mobilizing the experience of our customers' customers for the marketing. So example of this, we have a product called the Eloqua which lots of email can be sent. They have a new email designer that inherently builds responsively designed emails. So those are the ones you open up on your phone that look good, you open on the desktop they look good. That's how it all should work. Unfortunately, it's not for a lot of folks today. So just having that be part of the tooling, big deal. So that's the mobile part. We talked a bit about self service, that's theme number three. And the fourth theme is actually a bit of a sleeper, it's about taking another pass through some of the core technologies we already have that people use the most, and being able to find... >> John: Like what? >> Maximizer a test and targeting a personalization tool. Used by a lot of our customers, the fundamental thing you do inside maximizer is you live in a campaign designer. And it allows you to adjust various parts of a webpage for testing, targeting, and personalization. We've got an entirely new way to do that that's based on an analysis of what do people do when they use this and how can we shave off some number of clicks per session? How can we make it less error prone when people are deciding what to do? How can we make more performant? You talked about 150 milliseconds, how about if we just eliminate the save button altogether so that anything you do automatically saves in the background. You don't have to reload anything. That kind of stuff comes from watching people use the product and realizing, wow, they're in there all day long. If we can just make all of those things a little better, over a course of a year, that's huge. >> John: So basically, we're looking at the core jewels and the platform and making it simpler, reducing the steps to do things, just end up being more efficient in some of the proven tools. >> Steve: Exactly, and in the speech this morning, we said, "Hey look, we don't talk about this enough." >> John: That's not a sleeper that's good. >> The tendency is to come out here, and we all want to talk about everything that's new like AI and the people who are our actual customers. They're seeing pearls rain from the sky when all of the sudden something that took them 12 minutes to do at a time now takes eight, and they do that 2000 times a year. >> John: I always say it's a great business model by, you know, making things simpler, reducing the time to do things and steps >> Steve: Yeah >> and making things intuitive and easy to use. Which it sounds like you're doing, but now let's talk about the glamor side of it. Because I think AI and chat bots speaks to the future, what other glam do you see happening out there right now? Obviously, AI is hot right now. >> Steve: Yeah, I think the other glam at this point is a little more speculative at least as it applies to my area with marketing like Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and so on. There's also internet of things. Certainly that world is changing. There are more devices of various types that can talk to the network. We've got a customer, you may be familiar with it, a sleep number bed company, the ones that have the bed where you can pick your number. That's actually a connected device, and so there's some interesting things that can be done there with careful discretion about what data you're collecting. But when we started thinking about, incidentally, so many things that in the past used to be a inert objects are generating data. That can feed into various applications whether it's marketing or other areas. >> John: And more data's coming in, it's just not stopping. >> And it's great for Oracle because if Oracle is good at anything it's good at dealing with very large scale data. That's been the business for a long time, and the trend won't change. There will continue to be larger and larger scale data. >> Steve, final point, what's the theme of the show this year besides the messaging that you have? What do you seeing that's happening here that's evolving? What's the top story here? >> Steve: Well, you know we did a customer advisory board meeting here for the marketing cloud, and I think if I were going to ask the customers what their top story is, I think their top story is they themselves want to continue becoming more customer centric. Everybody talks about it. Well of course, we should be that way. But so many companies grew up doing things like focusing on the thing we're selling, they're being offer centric. And so organizationally changing, using the technologies like we have so they can create the kinds of experiences, we call them the connected customer experience that they themselves want to have. It's a bit challenge, and so their permissions are to say transform ourselves to be from the tech down to the organizational incentives, truly customer centric. >> John: Steve Krauss, Group Vice President of Product Management Oracle Marketing Cloud. Great to see you. Thanks for sharing the insight of the real road map and all the exciting stuff happening here and your clean up this morning, congratulations. I'm John Furrier and Peter Burris. More live coverage coming up here at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas with the Cube after this short break. (live upbeat music)

>> Narrator: Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE, covering Oracle Modern Customer Experience 2017, brought to you by Oracle. (bright, lively music) >> Hello and welcome back to a CUBE coverage of Oracle's Modern Customer Conference here at the Mandalay Bay in Las Vegas. I'm John Furrier with SiliconANGLE, theCUBE, with my co-host this week, Peter Burris, head of research at Wikibon.com, part of SiliconANGLE Media, and our next guest is Austin Miller, Product Marketing Director for Oracle Marketing Cloud. Welcome to theCUBE conversation. >> Thank you very much for having me. >> This coveted post-launch spot. >> Yeah, we have a lunch coma kicking in, but no, seriously, you have a really tough job because you're seeing the growth of the Platform Play, right, really robust horizontal platform, but how you got here through some really smart acquisitions but handled well, and integrated, we covered that last year. You guys are seeing some nice tailwinds with some momentum certainly around the expectations of what the customers want. >> Yeah, I think that one of the best things when we start thinking about, to your point, product integration, it's also the way that we are talking to our customers about how they can use the products together. It's not really enough just to have maybe one talk to another, but unless we prove out the use cases, you don't get the utilization, and I think this year what we've really seen is getting those use cases to actually start getting some traction in the field. >> So this integrated marketing idea seems to be the reality that everyone wants. >> Where are we on that progress bar, because this seems to be pretty much unanimous with customers, the question is how to get there, the journey, and the heroes that are going to drive and the theme of the conference. But the reality is this digital transformation is being forced for business change. >> Austin: Absolutely. >> And marketing is part of that digital fabric. >> I think that one of the most interesting things about this is if you look at kind of the history of when did the stacks start becoming actually part of the story, it was at a point where we didn't really necessarily even have the capabilities to do it. As a result many marketers who thought they were maybe buying into a stack approach got a little bit burned. I think now we are actually at that place where that value is not only something that they can see inherently and say "oh, I'd like all these applications to talk together," but it's actually feasible, it's something that they're going to be able to use, and they can be optimistic about, frankly. >> Where are they getting burned, you mentioned that, from buying into a full stack of software for a point solution, is that kind of what you meant? >> No, I think that in the marketing realm, when you're talking to marketers, it is very easy to think about all the horrible things that they have to deal with on a daily basis, all these problems. And the reality is that oftentimes you've had to have this conversation with them that says, you know, there are not going to be easy answers to hard problems. There are usually hard answers to hard problems. We can help alleviate some of that friction, especially when we start talking about data silos or things about interoperability, so being able to not just have integration, but pre-built function within these particular platforms, but realistically, it just wasn't something that we necessarily in the market in general were able to deliver on until somewhat recently. >> So, I am very happy that I heard you use the word "use cases," especially at a launch, because that's been one of the biggest challenges of both marketing technology when we think about big data, there's been such a focus on the technology, getting the technology right, and then the use cases and how it changed the way the business or the function did things, kind of either did or didn't happen. Talk about how a focus in use case is actually getting people to emphasize the outcomes, and how Oracle is helping people then turn that into technology decisions. >> This may sound almost counterintuitive, but in reality the way that use cases we see helping us the most is that it really helps spur about the organizational changes that we need in order to actually have some of this happen, 'cause it's very easy to say, "we have all this technology marketer and you should be using it all," but if you don't actually prove it out and how that's going to impact let's say the way that they're creating their marketing messages, on even a kind of not exciting basis, like how are you creating your emails, how are you creating your mobile messaging, how are you doing your website, and then start talking about those in actual use cases, it's very hard for people to organize their organizations around this kind of transformation. They need something tangible to hold onto. >> And the old way with putting things in buckets, >> Austin: Exactly. >> Right, so so hey we got one covered, move on to the next one ... >> Peter: Or by channels even. We got an email solution, or we got a web solution and as the customer moves amongst these different mechanisms, or engages differently with these mechanisms, the data then becomes, we've talked a lot about this, becomes the integration point, and that as you said affects a significant change on how folks think about organizing, but what do you think are going to be some of the big use cases if people are going to be ... you're providing advice and counsel to folks on the 2017. >> Yeah, so I think that talking about marketing-specific use cases is really important, especially when we start thinking about how am I using my first-party data that I may have within a particular channel. And I'm using that to contextually change the way I'm communicating to somebody on another channel. But if we kind of take that theme, and we think about let's not just expand it to marketing but let's really talk about customer experience, because as a customer, I go in-store, I go on email, I go on your mobile app, I don't view those as different things. That's just my experience with your brand. And even as we start getting to maybe some of the service things, am I calling a call center? The way that we're really thinking about marketing is not only bringing all this information across our traditional marketing channels, but how are we helping marketers drive organizational change beyond the traditional bounds of even their own marketing department into service, into sales, into on-store, because in reality that's where kind of the next step is. It's not just about, to your point, promotional emails. It's about how are we bringing this experience across the full spectrum. >> So it's really how is first-person data going to drive the role of marketer differently, the tasks of marketing as a consequence, and therefore how we institutionalize that work. >> Absolutely, and I think that you can see this in the investments that we've made in the ODC, Oracle Data Cloud. It's first step, let's start thinking about how we can start moving around on first-party data, that'll be a nice starting point, but then afterwards, how are we taking third-party data let's say from offline purchases, starting to incorporate that and that store's third-party data, 'cause then we really start getting to that simultaneously good experience or at least consistent experience across digital, across in-store, we start piecing together, but we really need to start at that baseline. >> A lot of people have been talking about the convergence of adtech and martech for years, and we had a CUBE alumni on our CUBE many years ago, when the Big Data movement started to happen, and he was a visionary, revolutionary kind of guy, Jeff Hammerbacher, the founder of Cloudera, who's now doing some pioneering work in New York City around science. He's since left Cloudera. But he said on theCUBE what really bothered him was some of the brightest minds in the industry were working on using data and put an ad in the right place. And he was being kind of critical of, use it for cooler things, but we look at what's happening on martech side, when you have customer experience, that same kind of principle of predictive thinking around how to use an asset can be applied to the customer journey, so now you bring up the question of A.I. If you broaden the scope of adtech and martech to say all things consumer, in any context, at any given time, you got to have an A.I. or machine learning approach to put the right thing at the right place at the right time that benefits the user >> Austin: It's not scalable. That's the reality of it. To you point, if you're going to start thinking about this across all these different channels, including advertising as well, the idea of being able to do these on a one-off basis, from a manual perspective, it's completely untenable, you're completely correct, but to that point, where you're talking about the best minds in the industry maybe dedicated to figuring out, "if I put a little target here, am I going to get somebody to click on that ad one time, or how am I placing it," that is very much the way that we were at the very beginning parts of marketing technology, where it was bash and blast messaging, how can we just kind of get the clicks and the engagement, and how do we send out >> John: spray and pray >> Exactly. And now I think that we are getting to a much more nuanced understanding of the way that we advertise because it's much more reliant on context, it's not just how can I get my stuff in front of somebody's eyeballs, it's how am I placing it when they're actually showing some sort of intention for maybe the products I already have. >> Adaptive intelligence is interesting to me because what that speaks to is, one, being adapted to a real time, not batch, spray and pray and the old methodology of database-driven things, no offense to the main database cache at Oracle, but it's a system of record, but now new systems of data are available, and that seems to be the key message here, that the customer experience is changing, multiple channels, that's omnichannel, there needs to be ... everyone's looking for the silver bullet. They think it's A.I., augmented intelligence or artificial intelligence. How do you see that product roadmap looking, because you're going to need to automate, you're going to need to use software differently to handle literally real time. >> Completely. I think that this is a really important distinction about the way that we view A.I. and how it factors into marketing technology and the way that I think a lot of people in the industry do. I think that once again this theme of there aren't easy answers to hard problems, it is very pleasant to think that I'm just going to have one product that's going to solve everything, from when I should send my next email, to if there's clean water in this particular area in a third-world country, and that's just something that maybe sounds nice, but it's not necessarily something that's actually tangible. The way that we view A.I. is it's something that's going to be embedded and actually built into each of these different functions so that we can do the mission-critical things on the actual practical level, and kind of make it real for marketers, make it something that's isn't just "oh, buy this and it will solve all your problems." >> So I'm going to ask you the question, the old adage, "Use the right tool for the right job, and if you're a hammer everything looks like a nail." A lot of people use email marketing that way, they're using it for notifications when in reality that's not the expectation of the consumer, some are building in a notification engine separate from email. All that stuff's kind of under the covers, in the weeds, but the bigger question to you is, I want to get your insight on this because you're talking to customers all the time, is as customers as you said need to change organizationally, they're essentially operationalizing this modern era of CX, customer experience, so it's a platform-based concept which pretty much everyone agrees on, but we're in the early innings of operationalizing this >> Austin: Oh yeah. >> So how do you see that evolving and what do you want customers to do to be set up properly if they're coming in for the first inning of their journey, or even if they're midstream with legacy stuff? >> I think that that's a really good perspective, because you don't want to necessarily force people to go through excruciating organizational change in preparation if we're in maybe the first inning, but it is really just about setting up the organization to adjust as realistically we get into the middle innings and into the later innings. And really the kind of beginning foundation of this is understanding that these arbitrary almost like tribal distinctions between who owns what channel, who's the email marketer, or who's the mobile person, they need to be broken down, and start thinking about things instead of these promotional blasts to your point, or even maybe reactionary notifications. How is this contributing to the number of times your brand is touching me in a day, or the way that I'm actually communicating, so I think that it's an interesting kind of perspective of how we were organizationally set up for that, but the short answer is that A.I. is going to fundamentally change the way that marketers are operating. It's not going to fundamentally change maybe everything that they're doing or it's not going to be replacing it. It's going to be a complementary role that they need to be ready to adjust to. >> So you are, you're in product, product management. >> Austin: Product marketing >> Product marketing. So you are at that interface between product and marketing, both moving more towards agile. How are you starting to use data differently and how would you advise folks like you in other businesses not selling software that might not have the same digital component today but might have a comparable digital component in the future, what would you tell them to do differently? >> So, I think that the first step is to actually have an honest assessment of what we have and what we don't have. I think that there's a lot of people who like to kind of close their eyes or maybe plug their ears and just sort of continue down the path of least resistance. >> Peter: Give me ... >> Oh, an honest assessment of what kind of data we do have today, what kind of data we might actually need, and then most importantly, is that actually feasible data to get. Because you can't >> you can wish it but you can't get it >> You can wave a magic wand and say these are the numbers that I need on this particular maybe interest level of these particular ... >> John: The fatal flaw is hoping that you're going to get data that you never get, or is ungettable. >> Or, this is really something that I think a lot, would resonate more with marketers is that we have now set up all these different points of interaction that are firehoses of data spraying it at me, I may be able to retroactively look at it and maybe garner some kind of insight, but there's just no real way for me to take that and make it actionable right away. It is a complete mess of data in a lot of these organizations. >> And that's where A.I. comes in. >> Austin: Absolutely. It's able to automate that, reaction ... >> Peter: Triage at a bare minimum. >> Correct >> So the first starts with data. What would be the second thing? >> So it's data, presume that you're going to need help on the triage and organizing that data. Is there a third thing? >> I would say that you're going down the right path with the steps there, but once again, we're all talking about these concepts that do require a great deal of specialization and a lot of actual understanding of the way we're dealing with data. So honest assessment is definitely that first part, but then do I have the actual people that I need in order to actually take action on this? Because it is a specialized kind of role that really hasn't traditionally been within marketing organizations. >> I know you guys have a big account-based, focus-account-based marketing, you know, doing all kinds of things, but I'm a person, I'm not a company, so that's a database saying "hey, what company do you work for?" And all the people who work for that company and their target list. I'm a person. I'm walking around, I've got a wearable, I might be doing a retail transaction, so the persona base seems to be the rage and seems to be the center and we heard from Mark Hurd's keynote, that's obviously his perspective and others as well so it's not like a secret, but how do you take it to the next level? An account base could help there too, but you need to organize around the person, and that seems to open up the identity question of okay, how do I know it's John? >> I think that goes beyond just personal taste, but into what does this person actually do at this company, because I can go in and give a headspinning presentation to maybe a C-level executive and say, "look at all this crazy stuff you can do," and meanwhile the guy who might be making the buying decision at the end of the table's looking at that and being like, "there's no way we can do that, we don't have the personnel to do that, there's no chance," and you have already dissension from the innards of the actual people who are making the buying decisions. The vision can't be so big that it resonates with no one. And you need to understand on a persona level what is actually resonated with them. 'Cause feasibility is a very important thing to our end user, and we need to actually incorporate that into our messaging, so it's not just so pie-in-the-sky visioning. >> I did a piece of research, sorry John, I did a piece of research a number of years ago that looked at the impact of selling mainly to the CIO. And if you sell successfully to the CIO, you can probably guarantee nine months additional time before the sale closes. >> Austin: Yeah. Because the CIO says "this is a great idea," and then everybody in the organization who's now responsible for doing it says "hold on, don't put this in my KPIs while I take a look at it and what it really means and blah blah blah. Don't make me responsible for this stuff." You just added nine months. >> Absolutely. I even have a very minute example for something that we rolled out. This was a great learning opportunity. Because we rolled out a feature called multi-variant testing. It's not important what exactly it is for the purposes of this, but basically it's the idea of you can take one email and eight versions of it, test it, and then send out the best one. Sounds great, right? I'm an executive, I'm like boy, I'm going to get every last ounce of revenue from my emails, I'm only going to send out the best content. If you don't pitch that right, the end user, all they hear is wait, the thing that I do one of, I have to create eight of now? Am I going to get to see my kids ever again? That's just the way you have to adjust ... >> And seven of 'em are going to be thrown away. I'm going to be called a failure. >> Exactly. So it's just not something that you can take for granted because marketers have a variety of different roles and a variety of firm responsibilities. >> And compound that with everything's going digital. >> Exactly. >> So (mumbles) Austin, great to have you on theCUBE. Spend the last minute though, I'd like you just to share for the last minute, what's the most important thing happening here at #ModernCX besides the simplicity of the messaging of modern era of customer expectations, experiences, all that's really awesome, but what should people know about that aren't here, watching. >> I'd just say that the one thing that at least resonates most with me, and this is once again coming from a product and sort of edging on marketing, is that the things that we've been talking about with not only A.I. but even just simple things like having systems that are communicating to each other, they're actually real and we're seeing that as real. You can actually see them working together in products and serving up experiences to customers that we're even doing now as part of the sales process and saying "hey, this is how you would actually do this," as opposed to just "here's our Chinese menu of different options. Pick what you want and then we can just kind of serve it up." Because I think that there's something that's very heartening to maybe marketers who have a little bit of, I don't know, doubt about whether or not this is real. It is real, it's here today, and we're able to execute on it. >> And that's the integration of a multi-product and technology solution. >> I would almost say that it's slightly different from that though, in terms of, it's not just integration of these pieces, it's integration that's pre-built, so we actually have it pre-built together and then we also have these tremendous, new, innovative features and functionality that are coming with those integrations. It's not just portability, it's actual use cases. >> Would you say that it's as real as the data? >> It's as real as the data. I think that that's ... >> If you have the data, then you can do what you need to do. >> That's a very, a very good point. >> Austin Miller, Product Marketing Director at Oracle Marketing Cloud. Thanks for sharing the data here on theCUBE where we're agile, agile marketing is the focus. I'm John Furrier, Peter Burris. More coverage from day one at Mandalay Bay for Oracle Modern Customer Experience show. We'll be right back with more after this short break. (bright, lively music)

>> Live from Las Vegas, it's theCUBE! Covering Adobe Summit, 2019. Brought to you by Adobe. Welcome back everyone to the Cube's coverage, here in Las Vegas for Adobe Summit 2019. I'm John Furrier with Jeff Frick, our next guest is Ronell Hugh, head of product strategy and marketing for Adobe and Adobe Cloud Experience, which was announced available today, welcome to theCUBE, thanks for joining us. >> Hey, thank you John, thanks for having us. >> So the Experience Cloud Platform, is game changer for Adobe. >> Yes. Could you describe what is it? Like, where'd it come from, how'd it all start? >> Yeah I can definitely do that. So, the Experience Platform, Adobe Experience Platform, the genesis of it came from, data is such an important part, I think you've had lots of people on here talking about data and what it can do. And really it's like, when you have data that is dispersed across an enterprise, how do you actually, what do you do with that, right? A lot of customers are out there, and I, terminology I came across the other day was data swamps, you know, data lakes, data warehouse, we're all aware of those ideas. But how do you take that data and actually do something meaningful? The idea came from, we have siloed repositories for our data, sitting across all of our solutions, how do we bring that together and rationalize and standardize that data, so that it's more useful for a customer, so they actually can do something that's truly meaningful with it? And that's really around driving these real time personalized experiences with customers, right? And so I think that's where it started. And as we've evolved that, what you heard today is kind of what you're seeing about how do we then take that to the next level? How do you apply machine learning? How do you provide a data model that standardizes the taxonomy across the ecosystem? How do you then leverage that and how do you have it being open? To now, you give customers, developers an opportunity to start to develop new applications that advances what they're trying to do in their environment. >> What I think, what I found super impressive was, you guys really cracked the code on what I call cloud scale architecture, >> Yeah. >> While not, missing out on the opportunities to innovate at the user level. You have the creativity, the applications, and then the data almost is like this DevOps kind of mindset where it's like the data's being available in a diverse way for the use cases that matter at the right time, so. That's a hard nut to crack. >> Yeah it is a hard nut to crack, I think. But at the core, again, it's like, it's the data that's important. Once you have that centralized, you've created some rules around that, you're governing it so that you can now leverage, depending on what you're trying to use it for, it's really then down to the use cases. To your point, like, what are the specific use cases a customer has, that they're trying to solve? There could be industry ones that we could apply them to, we've identified a few of those that we think are important for customers, some of those around the real-time customer data platform and how Experience Platform from along with Audience Manager helps to solve that use case for a customer. But there's others around, how do you enable customers, from a development standpoint? Applications, they're really trying to figure out, hey, I need an open system, but I can start to develop something rich and new, right? And drive advancements in their organizations. And so there's a lot that we've had, there's kind of four that we've identified from a use case standpoint. But that's not limited to those four. Every customer is going to apply either one or all of those in a unique way within their environment. >> When you say four, you mean clouds, like analytical cloud, ad cloud-- >> No, no, I mean, so the use cases that we've identified. >> Oh okay. >> So we have, real-time customer data platform, we have one around, application, customer experience application development, customer journey intelligence is all around how do you take and leverage AI ML tools, to help enrich data? And then we have one around how you take and deliver across multiple applications. What's the channel execution looks like, now that you have data standardized in one place? What does that mean for your channels that you're now trying to execute across your ecosystem? >> Well you guys did the product development on this and the product marketing and all the stuff that goes in to building a platform, you got to go out an talk to customers, right? So what was the, when you guys talked to customers, what was their initial feedback to you guys? And when you 'em the platform now, where are they, I mean, what's the reaction? Can you share some either anecdotal or, specific? >> Yeah, anecdotally, I mean we started talking about a platform and the idea and a vision of a platform, I think, three or four years ago. Last year we then laid the groundwork around, there's three areas to this, a profile, the data side too and a content side, what you're seeing now is a data piece of this, like, how does data then really drive a lot of the interactions there? And as we've progressed, the reception has been great. Customers are like, we understand this. And it's really around the notion of real-time. Real-time is really built on the knowledge that, hey, you're taking data, you're not just doing batch any more. I know batch is predominantly what customers like to use. But real-time means getting data in, that's current. That therefore you can then action upon. Which really is the relevant data that you need. And I think that started to resonate really well. >> How do they define real-time? 'Cause it could depend based upon the application. If you're a doctor you need real-time now. >> If you're an investor, >> Yeah, you need it now! >> You need it now! If you're a BI application on a query, it could be a little slower. I mean real-time is a relative term, can you just unpack the customer's expectation of real-time? >> Yeah I mean, you look across multiple verticals, right? So, depending which vertical you're in, to your point, it could vary, right? But if you're a brand that's delivering consumer experiences, real-time is like, are you interacting with them with the right data to help inform that interaction with that customer, right? And that is real-time. So it varies by industry of course, right? Hospitality, you think of that, when you walk into a hotel, getting a notification that your room is ready. Me recently coming here on a plane trip, having to check my luggage, notified that the bag was check in, and also now that it's being delivered now for me to pick up. Those are all, that's real-time, right? And it varies, I think, by industry. And I think that's where it starts to get really exciting, is like how do you apply it? What does it mean for real-time for each company that's starting to apply Experience Platform to their infrastructure? >> That's my favorite definition of that, real-time is in time to do something about it. (all laughing) Which depending on what the situation is, could be a short period of time or a longer period of time. But Ronall I'm curious, 'cause we've always had the transactional data and real-time's always been a focus on the transactional data, but on the behavioral data to then pull back in to transactional activity, that's a little bit more recent. Especially with so many sources of data that are coming in and changing all the time. How are people dealing with that data flow challenge and as you said, aggregating it and coalescing it into a single platform that now you can take action on it? >> Yeah, I mean the behavioral data's a core to Adobe it's definitely a part of our bread and butter. And I think it's combining it with all the other data sources that will make it even more richer for our customers, right? You think about a customer, if the real Holy Grail, in a way, of our Experience Platform is that real-time customer profile. There're so many different data points that help to build that. When you isolate it just behavioral, that's great. We know the interactions that a customer is having with the brand, but there's other parts that, transactional, POS, social, that helps to build out the view of that customer. And then, think of then at that point, for a customer, any of our customers are using this today, some that were heard today as part of our keynote. How they're then taking that to the next level of how they then build experiences for their customers. It's because it's a culmination of all of that, right? I think behavioral is a huge part of it. Because it's not static data or stagnant data, it's kind of like that data that we have that's been gathered over the last several years of a customer, and how they're currently interacting with a brand. But then it's, again, bringing it all together. Harnessing that, and then building that real-time customer profile, it really is a powerful piece of the platform. >> You know when I looked at the slide on the keynote, it was clear that this'll have a lot of data chops within Adobe. Because you had the data pipelining piece after data input sources, and then the other side of the chart was the piece around the applications, ISVs, ecosystem, and then you had your real-time profile, which I get is the centerpiece. But before that you had something that was around semantic data pipelining, >> Semantic data pipelining yeah. >> Data pipelining and semantics. >> Yeah. >> What is that piece? Is that really where the transformations are happening? Is that the input into the, you're smiling, wow. >> Yeah this is great, I love talking about this. >> You're nerding out. Okay. >> So, pipeline and semantics is all around, so pipeline is the thought process around, we have connectors that we built, right? That's really where the data comes in. When we see at the beginning of the diagram is the bit that said streaming, it's the connectors that allow that streaming to happen but it also gives customers the option of saying, now you can batch it, right? You can batch it, which is what you've been doing, but streaming is really what we're pushing. 80% of customers still think that batching is the only way to manage their data right? And then really it's more about, hey, if you want to action in real-time, where is that data currently at? So that's what we say that happens with the data in the pipeline part of it. Additionally you have things like Adobe Experience Platform Launch and Auditor, Launch is all around data collection as well. But it's also about deployment of tags. When you deploy a tag you're also connecting information that can feed back into the system as well, and then the last piece of that is we have a feature of Platform that's called Auditor, and really it's about auditing your environment to make sure that it's being implemented correctly, right? Semantics is all about governance and control of the data. Standardizing the data, so we have something we call Experience Data Model, they talked a little bit about that, or ExDM, Experience Data Model is all around, it's an open source initiative to help standardize taxonomy of your data. I grew up in Germany, first language is German, and when I moved to the US if I were to walk into a room and started speaking German, no one would've understood me, right? It would've been stares and everything. But if I had switched my language, luckily I speak English too, so I was able to share and speak English, it's the same with data. You can't have it labeled differently for it to communicate. And that's what really happens in semantics and the data pipeline piece we did. >> And it's important too, I want to unpack it a little bit >> It's great to know. >> because semantics also feeds into contextual awareness. And one of the things we've observed doing these CUBE interviews with a lot of experts is, we've heard diverged data and flow, creates more visibility into potential blind spots. Just in data science parlance. Talk about that streaming piece, I think that's something that I see, the people who get data right, will stream as much as they could to get some flow going, to get data sources coming in, to have more diverse data. Talk about that dynamic of diverse data. >> Diverse data, I mean, a part of that diagram you saw, on the left of that when Anjul was speaking, was around data sources, data inputs, right? And so we talked about behavioral, transactional, third party, POS, and it's the variety of data, and that coming in consistently that helps you create that picture of a customer. So you need a variety of data. I think just having our data gives you, again, like we talked about before, the behavioral components of that, but consistently bringing in multiple pieces of data helps to take that further. Now one thing you talked about was AI, and I want to take you there just a little bit 'cause that piece of then how you can manipulate the data, and enrich with new insights, is key. Again, lots more data, standardized, controlled, now being governed in the right way to meet different regulations and policies that are out there. And then now adding AI models to that, ML models to that, to take your organization further. I think that's where we see the power of that data, and having lots of data. Open and extensible is one of the key things that we've been talking about with the platform. >> And clean data feeds clean machine learning. >> Yeah. >> Dirty data gives dirty machine learning. >> Yeah, dirty insights, right? (both laughing) And we always want it to be clean, right? But that's so important, we sit here and think about it, customers want that. They're desiring to have that so they can innovate within their infrastructure and their organizations to take their businesses further. >> And that's where we see the machine, that's why data's so core for you guys in this piece. Alright, so what is the customer environment like? Are they all tuned in to what you just said? I can see some progress in the big companies and maybe, cloud native folks getting, jazzed up on that but, are the big companies tuning in to this? In your mind, where are they on the progress bar? >> Yeah, so John and Jeff, the big companies that we have talked to, are typically further along, that are cloud native, they're more pushing the boundaries of innovation and when we looked at this by industry, you tend to see more of the typical companies by industry that are kind of leaning into this. You know, hospitality, automotive, you have entertainment, media, you also have retail, you know. There's been a lot of interest from those from healthcare and financial services as well because they see the implications of what it means to them in terms of managing their data and executing that data to drive more engagement with their customers. >> They get an edge too, if they can nail the customer experience with data, they'll have a competitive advantage, I mean, if I had to choose between a hotel that was going to take care of me on my app, versus one that doesn't, I think I'm going to go with the one with the app every time. >> Definitely. >> If the price is, all things being equal. >> A key part to that though, and Shantanu I think, and Anjul, multiple people mentioned today, was that customer journey, right? Depending on where you are, data plays a key role in all aspects of that customer journey. And how do you activate it then in each part of the customer journey? To drive those experiences in real-time. So I think it's a key part to how we see it working. And I think that the AI and ML, it explodes even further, to your point, that cleanliness of the data then just makes that more potent in terms of what it can deliver. >> Well one of the things that you guys have is Adobe products, your customers have other things besides Adobe. So one of the things Anjul said in her keynote was open data open APIs. So how do you bring that other stuff in, when, first party data is getting harder and harder to get with all the stuff we're seeing online these days with privacy and regulations? First party data's great, if you can get it. >> Yeah. >> So how is this all impacting, outside the Adobe realm from a customer standpoint because they want to have a platform that can be easily tied together? How do you guys look at that changing landscape? It's changing pretty radically. >> It's high priority for our customers, right? They've always had a challenge with isolated vendors, right? And how do you then bring that data together? One of the things that we'd readily notice when I talked to customers is that, this excites them. The opportunity that they have now, to have a platform, regardless of which whether it's first party or third party, to bring that together, is something that they deem as necessary for their organizations to be successful, right? And so now it's all about, we've built now the tools to help them do that. We actually have third party connectors, right? So you can bring in data or we have ETL partners that we can work with to bring that data through that source-- >> And developers can develop on it, right? >> And developers can develop on it. >> Is there a developer program for the Experience Platform yet, or is that still ongoing? >> There is, a big component of what we're doing is the developer betas for this so now developers can go to adobe.com, adobe.io actually, and find a lot of the APIs that are there, available for them, and documentation to help them build an application on top of Platform. >> So they can do that today? >> They can do that today. >> Awesome. >> They can go check that out today, and that, but you're pointing out something that's really important. A platform that is open and extensible, now makes itself available to customers who have, large developer teams. Many CTOs have an organization engineers area, chomping at the bit to build new applications for their organizations. They also have big data science teams too, that are, wanting this take. Data science teams have always been about massaging data, they've been managing it, that gets old for them. They don't want to do that, they want to build something that's unique, innovative and actually inspire their organizations. >> High quality data, real-time and relevant, fast and cool, that's what it's all about. >> Yeah. >> And you guys got a platform, so final question for you. To get a platform right, we've observed, you got to enable success. You've got to be an enabling technology. What's the big secret sauce for this platform? >> The secret sauce. I think it comes down to something that may seem simple. But I think there's a couple pieces that are a secret sauce to it, the ultimate secret sauce that is powered by those other areas, is that real-time customer profile. And that's only the secret sauce because of, what we do from out data connector standpoint of bringing in data in real-time, and standardizing that with the right taxonomy to then inform that real-time customer profile. It's the power of what the platform can do. And then after that, how you use query to develop more data inputs from that, or how you then deliver that, through decisioning or other triggers that you might have available, that's really the secret sauce of what we have within the platform. >> Awesome, Ronall, thanks for coming on. >> Thank you. >> Appreciate the insights we'll follow up, love the streaming, love the real-time profiling, love the data. Adobe's Experience Platform, hitting the market. It's theCUBE, live coverage, day one of two days, of wall to wall coverage. We'll be right back after this short break. (electronic music)